Yasuraka no MEANS
by Shinbun Onna
Summary: Arika and her twin brother Takeru move to Rainbow Sash Island because their father feels it is in his reclusive son's best interest to get a fresh start, but the change between city and country seems to affect both siblings in ways they couldn't imagine.
1. Takeru

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon nor any of the characters.**_ Also I haven't played Tree of Tranquility so I'm kind of improvising after getting hyped up and reading game summaries so any errors… were kind of planned for. I'm addicted to Harvest Moon games but I can't afford a wii._

When I boarded the little boat I was hesitant. Looking back over my shoulder I waved at my papa. I was forced forward by a rather harsh shove from my impatient twin, Takeru. "You've already popped dad's vertebra out of alignment before I had to pry you off of him. Would you just get on the damn boat so we can leave?" he sneered pushing me forward so that I stumbled with my luggage. I had such a nice brother.

"Well, at least I told him goodbye," I shot back. Takeru was so distant towards our father lately that I was in sympathy for my papa. Dad loved Takeru so much, and to treat him like this in return made me sick. One of the crew members passed by taking a double look of me dusting myself off as I glared at my twin. I could feel my hair getting unruly in the breeze as well. I silently cursed myself for cutting it off. There was nothing to do about it now though.

"The cabins are below deck. I suggest you go and put away your luggage so it doesn't get lost," the man directed with a small smile. I nodded and took Takeru's arm intending to fully slam his big fat head into the floor when we got to our room. He fought me, but not for long when he realized that he wasn't getting away. Small stature ran in the family, but it didn't mean we weren't able. Yes I looked sickly skinny, but I was tough—sadly that also meant that my brother's timid looks were a lie as well. The only reason I was overpowering him at the moment was because I was running off of adrenaline which stemmed from many things but mainly anger. I could envision our father shaking his head as he watched his children fight up on deck before disappearing below. I'm sure that was exactly how it had played out as well.

"One day Takeru—you're going to fall for some girl and she's going to turn you down for being such an asshole—and guess what I'll do. I'm going to laugh until my head explodes."

"That will be a happy day. I'll finally be rid of you," he mumbled flopping down on the other cot. I sneered at him before whisking out of the cabins and back up to the deck. Takeru didn't always act this way. We used to be inseparable, not because we were forced together, but because we loved each other that much. Mother had died two years ago and that was when everything went downhill. He stopped going out with our friends when they would invite us with them places telling me to go on without him and have fun for both of us. At first it wasn't all that bad but soon he became colder toward our father. He didn't talk at family dinners, which weren't often because papa traveled for his job a lot and wasn't home much. Soon after that he would seal himself away in his room only going in and out to the bathroom or to pick up the plate of food I left by his door. Our father had had enough and found a brochure for an "exciting farming adventure" which didn't seem all that appealing to either of us, but it was a new start for Takeru. Of course papa sent me along as well to make sure everything went smoothly and because he said it would be good for moral. I didn't doubt him, I just didn't like it.

"A hello miss. It shouldn't take far too long to reach the island. How are you feeling? Ill? You look a little pale," the captain stated smoking his pipe as he leaned on the railing. I wasn't sick. If I was pale it was because I was worried so I shook my head and stood beside the man a moment thinking and looking out at the threateningly dark clouds before he spoke again. "What is your name?"

I looked over to see the old man smiling. "Yumei Akari," I answered with a smile back. Hopefully other people where we were moving would be just as nice as well.

"And you're going to Waffle Town because of the land give-away correct?" A puff of smoke came out of his pipe and I nodded waving my hand in the air to redirect the fumes. Thunder struck then and the wind suddenly picked up and soon it was pelting drops from the sky. "It would be best to get below deck," the captain shouted over the suddenly vicious sea. I had to agree. To think we had just been in roughly smooth waters and now it was like when you drove along and hit the edge of where the rain started. It was an enormous change.

As I stumbled clumsily down the stairs of the rocking boat I tripped and fell hitting my head on the door. The last thing I saw was Takeru open the door and his indifferent face morph into another emotion for the first time in at least a year. He knelt down over me beginning to pick me up and I lost consciousness.

Waking up I found myself in an unfamiliar room. Our things were all setting on the other bed so I knew that we had only arrived here recently. Takeru would have slept if I had been out for longer. I stood, stretched, and made my way down the hall following the voices that could be heard below Takeru's among them.

"Oh my, is it safe for her to be coming down the stairs on her own?" an old woman asked as I gripped the handrail and descended into their view. My brother rushed up the stairs to me grabbing my shoulders as I swayed slightly and raised my hand to my head holding it where it throbbed. "Looks like she's never been sailing before. She's not too graceful to get knocked out on a ship when it was only a little storm." A little storm? Did they have frequent hurricanes here? The ship was practically at a one hundred and eighty degree angle.

"I'm honestly surprised you don't have a concussion," Takeru whispered. I frowned. "It's good you woke up, I was afraid you might have lapsed into a coma. You wouldn't wake up before."

"I thought you would be happy to be rid of me." At least that was the last thing he'd told me before I collided with a door.

I saw that my bad face was contagious and a spark of pride flickered in me. Takeru's frown was a little deeper than my own only annoyed one. The old woman looked on worriedly with another younger woman as we finally made it all the way down. I refused to sit and clung to Takeru's neck, which my arm was slung over, childishly even though I was offered a chair. In reality—I would never mention it to him—I was happy that he cared if I was okay or not. I wanted to still be close to him since this contact would be the closest to a hug that I would get, I think he knew that was what I was thinking too because he looked rather irritated.

"This is my sister, Arika," Takeru stated to the women politely. Well, it was nice to see him being social.

"Twins too, aren't they adorable," the elder lady cooed with a wizened smile. "My name is Yuba and I'm the chef here at the inn."

"I'm Cole and I am the innkeeper." The younger woman smiled warmly. I nodded not able to really manage a genuine smile at the moment so I didn't feel like trying.

An middle aged man approached us seemingly out of nowhere as well. "Ah, awake," he said. "You were tossing around in your sleep rather violently, how do you feel? Was it a nightmare?"

I thought back trying to remember if I had even dreamt at all. Then it hit me, I remembered a woman with large wings and long oddly colored hair who seemed to have been dying like she was getting all the moisture sucked out of her—which happens to be rather gross mind you. When I explained the dream the old woman piped up, "An angelic woman with long hair. I know I'm beautiful but—"

"She's not talking about you, mother," the man cut her off. "It sounds like you have a very active subconscious. I'm Jake by the way, the owner of the Kirsh Inn in which you stand."

Takeru rolled his eyes without being noticed by anyone but myself. "Thank you all very much, but we really need to find a place to rest. It's been a very long night."

"Yes, of course. It would be wonderful if you both would stay the night here. We will take good care of you," Cole smiled at my brother warmly.

He nodded. "Thank you again." Then he walked back up the stairs with me in tow. I breathed deeply once we were safely in the confines of the room I had woken in. "I'm already so thrilled to be here," Takeru deadpanned. I smiled and nodded in agreement. This was not my favorite place either. Besides, who names a town after food? Seriously, "Waffle Town"? What was even worse was the island itself was practically begging me to think there would be pretty multi-colored unicorn ponies all over the place. Rainbow Sash Island was one hell of a name.

"Tomorrow I'm going to the doctor to check out this bump," I announced quietly. It was throbbing.

"No need," Takeru countered clearing off the other bed as I climbed into the one I had slept on before. "He came to check on you when we got here."

"I'm going to go anyway and get some pain medication," I muttered indignantly. I knew my head was going to pound for a day or two at least. That was a bad hit. Instead of crawling into his own bed I felt Takeru's presence beside me and the bed sinking under his weight. My brother lay beside me his hand grasping mine. It was something we had done as children, to cope. I was still a little surprised, but I was contented. To be honest I think we both needed the reassurance right now. After that contact no words were spoken. It was an understood form of affection. It meant, "I'm here for you if you're here for me." Even though we were now eighteen and old enough to be well out on our own, I still had to admit I needed Takeru and he probably felt the same way especially now.


	2. Waffle Town?

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon nor any of the characters.**_ Also I haven't played Tree of Tranquility so I'm kind of improvising after getting hyped up and reading game summaries so any errors… were kind of planned for. I'm addicted to Harvest Moon games but I can't afford a wii._

I opened my eyes when my pillow moved. Turned out my pillow happened to be my brother's arm. He sat up in the bed and looked at me drowsily as I looked at him in the same fashion. Then he fell back onto the bed and back asleep just like that. I was not so lucky. My head was throbbing terribly. To the doctor, I told myself silently.

Soon I was back snuck out the front doors of the inn and searching for the clinic by following what signs the town had. I found it relatively quickly and went inside. "How may I help you dear?" the woman behind the counter asked. She looked like the strict type. Her hair was pulled back so tightly, I think it actually made some of her wrinkles go away. That's when I collapsed into the floor. "Dear lord! She's fallen!" I heard her shout. Footsteps and then someone lifted me and carried me setting me on a bed.

I didn't know who it was because my eyes were shut so tightly I wasn't sure I would be able to open them again. I clenched my skull lying there until someone pulled back my arm firmly jabbing a needle into it. "Calm down. That shouldn't take long to start working." Their voice was deep, rich, but serious.

Finally I did relax and opened my eyes to see the doctor who had apparently seen me twice now, although this was my first time to see him. He looked almost too young to be a doctor. His dark eyes watched me calculating a moment before he relaxed as well. "You seem to have hit your head rather hard," he said. "Miss Yumei correct?"

I nodded.

"You do appear to have a concussion, but it isn't serious. I wasn't entirely sure until now. I'll prescribe some medication for now. If it gets any worse come back by and I'll up the dose." He pulled a small capsule of pills out of his lab coat pocket and handed it to me. "Only two for now."

I nodded again and took the medicine from his hand. "Thank you," I muttered still sleepy and now exhausted from that bought of pain.

"It's my job. It's best I do it properly," he replied impassively. "Just so long as the people are healthy." He went back to mixing herbs for medicine at a counter not far from the bed I was on. I watched in silence waiting to feel a little better pulled together before I ventured out again. I wanted to make it back to the inn and preferably to my room before collapsing. The incident before was embarrassing. A man I didn't even know having to carry me because I was unable to walk. It was pathetic of me, and creepy all together.

"You're staying at the Kirsh Inn waiting for your house to be built." It wasn't a question I noticed. He was completely aware of our situation. I nodded. Takeru must have told him. "Your brother was quite concerned about you last night. He kept asking questions as to whether you were going to wake up, and what he should do in such a situation," the doctor said. A smile found its way onto my face. Maybe Papa had been right and Takeru just needed a fresh start.

The doctor continued. "It's going to be quite interesting when one of the young men here starts trying to court you. I have a feeling that boy will be very overprotective."

Young men? I blinked and the smile fell. Well, I hadn't really had any admirers that I could remember so I had no idea how Takeru would act in such a situation, but what had brought such a topic up? "Are there a lot of people my age here?" I asked meaning not just men but women as well. I wanted to have friends to talk to who could relate. The doctor turned a small smile on his face, and seeing it heated my cheeks slightly. That smile made him handsome.

"There are. The majority of this town is our generation." Then he turned back to his work. Wait, "our" generation? So how old was he?

"Thank you for the medicine. I guess I should get back now, I'm sure Takeru's conscious and probably about to look for me since I've been gone a while. I'm Arika," I said bowing.

"Won," he stated nodding. I walked out thanking the woman at the desk as well with the medication stowed away in my pocket. She told me her name was In'ya.

Walking back into the inn through the front doors I realized sneaking back up to our room was not an option. The old woman, Yuba, called to me. I sighed but followed her orders to sit at a table. "Go wait on her and stop complaining," I heard her say to someone back in the kitchen. "I'll handle this. Don't worry."

A young man with lovely hair walked out looking very bored. "What would you like?" he asked offering a fake smile.

"I don't know what's on the menu," I deadpanned. His face faltered but he quickly recovered.

"Pancakes sound good to you?" he asked.

I shrugged. "That's fine." He walked back to the kitchen and I heard the old woman grumbling and griping about something he had done, but ignored it. My brother's feet appeared on the stairs and I waited for him to see me. He did and greeted me with a large yawn as he approached the table I sat at and took the seat beside me.

"What did the doctor say?" he inquired after telling Yuba he wanted coffee.

"I have a concussion and he prescribed medication for the pain." I watched the young man come back to our table with a brisk walk set the coffee on the table with a glass of water for myself and then walk quickly back to the kitchen muttering to himself.

The door to the inn opened and a girl came in, in a pink waitress's uniform. "You're late," the young man growled from the kitchen.

"I'm sorry Chihaya-sempai, Oba-san," the girl stated bowing as she hurried to the kitchen.

"Oh, thank goodness. Mai dear, you put up with this boy now. I've got errands to run," Yuba said leaving the inn in a rush. I sipped my water watching as the door closed back on itself letting some of the crisp fall air I had trod through earlier sweep in and rustle Takeru's hair. Fall had always been his favorite season. I preferred winter.

"How are you today?" the girl called Mai called cheerfully as she brought a plate of food to our table. I turned just in time to see her trip and the other waiter, Chihaya she'd called him, catch the dish before it hit the floor safely placing it, on the table before me.

"I have dishes for you to wash from last night. Why don't you go ahead and do that?" he ordered rather than offered seeming a little more than mildly annoyed by her clumsiness. I snickered not really feeling too sympathetic. I wasn't in a good enough mood to have compassion. "Is there anything you would like sir?" he asked Takeru. My brother shook his head declining and the man shrugged giving me a glance before walking back to the kitchen. I had a guess that he was the one who was actually cooking all the food. Now was time to test it and see if it was actually any good.

I popped some of the butter flavored un-sugared pastry into my mouth and nearly melted. Yes, he was very good at his job. These things kicked my specialty egg and waffle sandwiches out the window. As I finished and went to leave, since Takeru suggested in the middle of my stuffing my face that we tour the town, I went up to the counter pulling extra money out of my pocket and waiting for the man who was currently fixing up some more food to see me. He did and held up a finger signaling for me to wait a moment.

"What can I do for you?" he inquired with a small smile out of politeness after setting his spatula aside. I held up the tip and dropped it in his hand which happened to be a good bit larger than my own.

"Best breakfast I've ever had. Thanks," I told him. Then I turned and headed out the door with Takeru leaving him standing there with the money I had given him.

"What was that?" Takeru questioned once we were out walking down the street.

"I was complimenting a decent meal. He's better than me," I answered my hands behind my head as I stared ahead while keeping pace with my twin.

"Maybe I should have ordered something other than coffee," he replied examining the buildings.

"Maybe." I began to look at the buildings too. After a few minute we had come to the conclusion that all this town had going for it was a tailoring shop with decent clothes. Other than that we missed the city. There was the Meringue Clinic, which was where I had gone previously and was the name of a dessert, a fishing company—boring—, the Bagel Carpentry which was yet another food name, a church, a mansion—probably the mayor's—, Rusk Super market, and the city hall. A very boring town with a disturbing food obsession.

"Hey!" I heard behind us as we were walking. Both Takeru and I turned to see the waiter and cook from back at the inn waving at us. We walked toward him as he beckoned us to him. "The mayor stopped by," he said once we were fairly close. "He wanted to check on you two. So you're the ones who won the land give away?"

"Yeah," Takeru answered. "And you're the guy who has my sister worried that her cooking isn't good enough anymore." Takeru's smile warmed me. Perhaps he would form a new friendship. I hoped so. This guy seemed okay if you looked past that fake smile he kept putting on. I wasn't sure if anyone else could see it, but I was pretty sure that he wasn't as happy as he came off.

"Should we go back to the inn or did he mention meeting us somewhere?" I asked trailing off and leaving room for other possibilities. I was surprised the mayor had time to louse about town calling on newcomers. This town really was boring.

"He only said to tell you he came by. That was all," Chihaya—at least I think that was what the girl had called him earlier—said. "Have you toured the town already?"

"Yes," both Takeru and I said in unison. It was an odd perk.

"I see. My name is Chihaya. I just got back from traveling a little before the both of you last night and I thought about introducing myself then, but there seemed to be such a commotion going on and I was tired so I decided to wait." By commotion I assumed he was referring to Takeru flipping out that I wasn't waking up, and probably a lot of people worrying over me. Glad I hadn't been awake for that.

"I'm Takeru, and this is Akari," my brother introduced us. "It's good to see that there are some people our age here. Reassuring."

"I'm happy to see people my age move here as well," the guy replied offering another one of those smiles.

"Well, I suppose I'll check out that tailoring shop. You two seem to get along well," I stated starting to slink away. "Have fun!" With that I trotted back down the street and around the corner to the next street before slowing. I wouldn't let Takeru back out of that by chasing after me. He would have to talk to that man. I wanted him to have friends here.

Opening the door to the shop the little bell dingled and I observed the amazing designs. One of them caught my attention more than others mainly because winter was coming up and I remembered I didn't have a decent coat.

"May I help you?" a little girl with pink tinted hair asked as I felt of the coat's sleeve to test the texture.

I turned to look at her and smiled. "How much is this one?"

"It's—I don't remember ever seeing you before. Are you one of the new people?" Well, there went getting in and getting out. Looks like I would have to meet yet someone else.

"Yes, I'm Yumei Arika," I answered.

"Oh, I heard a rumor that your twin brother is very good looking!" the girl blurted seeming to ignore my extended hand entirely. "Does he have a girlfriend? What is he like?"

Already I didn't like her. "He's an ass," I stated sourly before looking back at the jacket. "How much—"

"It's fifty," a quiet voice cut me off and I looked over to see a girl with long hair pulled back and her eyes downcast. Immediately I was curious about her. Shyness acted like a magnet for me. I thought they were adorable. Shy people were my absolute weakness.

"I'll take it then," I smiled at her and followed as she shuffled over to the register. Pulling out my money I tried making conversation. "There are such wonderful clothes here. I'm amazed. Really, the city could use designs like this. Whoever the seamstress is, they are very talented." I looked up to see the girl's face was bright red. "Oh, did I say something wrong?"

She shook her head and took my money swallowing a little. How cute. Well, it was obvious she was the designer now. "It's beautiful work," I added on watching her face tint a little darker.

The girl then walked over to the coat and slipped it off of the mannequin and handed it to me. "Thank you very much for your patronage," she said softly and handed me the coat. I smiled widely. I would come here as often as I could. I already wanted badly to be friends with this girl. I wanted to bring her out of that world in which she kept to herself. She seemed so scared of me. I didn't like that.

For the first time I introduced myself on my own accord. "I'm Arika," I said extending my hand toward her. She tentatively took hold of it and the blush which she had just recovered from reappeared.

"…Kotomi," she managed to whisper. I smiled softly back at her and squeezed her hand before letting it drop and heading out the door. Meeting Kotomi had put me into a good mood. I smiled as I walked down the cobble paved road—until I bumped into something and fell.

I opened my eyes after having them shut tight expecting to hit the ground when I realized that I hadn't fallen that far. Before me was a man in nice clothing with long well taken care of hair. His arm under my back was what had saved me from a painful acquaintance with the ground. "Are you alright honey?" he asked not budging from the position we were in. The red in my cheeks had to be obvious. I could feel them burning so why didn't he just help me up and be done with it?

"I-I'm fine," I said feeling rather flustered. His eyes fell to the coat I had clutched in my arms and a smile lit his features.

"One of Kotomi's masterpieces. That girl is a wonder," he muttered. "You are a face I've never seen before. What is your name?" he asked.

How many times today will situations like this happen? "Arika," I stated dully. "May I stand up now?"

He grinned. "You aren't happy with your position? That's rather surprising. Perhaps you are a special girl." He was full of it. Egotistical…

"Arika!" I could tell it was Takeru before I turned around. He walked up giving the man who had yet to introduce himself a harsh glare. I knew he had seen how he'd held me before and I also had a guess he hadn't seen me fall so that made it look all that much worse. "You were taking too long and Chihaya had to go back to work. He was only on a short break."

"It's nice to meet you. I assume you are the lovely Arika's brother? I'm Juli," the man said with a smirk.

"Yes, I am her brother," Takeru eyed the man for a moment and decided he didn't like him. I knew that look. "Let's go back to the inn Akari."

"You look adorable Akari-chan!" Juli called after us. I stomped onward trying to walk faster than Takeru so he couldn't see me blush. It was a compliment I would accept. The man was not badly dressed himself. I wasn't sure if I liked being called "Akari-chan" though.

"Welcome back," Mai said as we walked inside the inn.

I nodded toward her and had fully recovered from my spell of flattery and didn't have any trouble dragging Takeru in with me to sit down at the table and rest. "Ah, I'm already bored of this place," I sighed slumping down in my seat and hugging the soft coat.

"Heh," Takeru noticed the purchase I'd made. "You've bought something. I guessed you would. Couldn't resist could you?"

"Not really," I answered with a grin. "The girl who makes those clothes is so cute too! I like her already. She's very talented."

Takeru thought for a moment. "She must be a quiet girl. You only like someone right off when they're overly reserved."

My grin grew. "She was absolutely terrified of me."

"Good luck sailor," Takeru saluted me grinning back now.

"I haven't introduced myself yet," Mai stated walking over with a little plate of cupcakes. "My name is Mai. My parents own this inn so I work here. It's nice to meet you." I was happy she didn't trip this time.

"I'm Arika," I replied taking one of the cupcakes and looking back toward the kitchen where I could see Chihaya rinsing his cooking utensils off.

"Takeru," my brother stated.

"I want to hold a town meeting and just introduce myself to everyone," I mumbled.

"Oh, have you had to say who you were a lot today? I'm sorry. That was rather thoughtless of me to introduce myself then. I just felt a little rude." Mai stuttered.

"No, she isn't upset with you. She's just being lazy," Takeru assured her. "Arika hate's monotony."

"Oh," she mumbled.

I rolled my eyes. "You're acting more human lately," I told Takeru. "It's nice to see you make contact with people again."

He frowned. "Well, you have been really compliantative recently so I'm not the only one acting different."

"Lately? I've been complaining for a year now and you finally hear me? I'm in awe that someone could ignore another person for so long." I scooted my chair back and stood up. "I want to do something fun…" I whined.

"Arika-san," Chihaya called from the kitchen. I looked up to see him looking over his shoulder at me. "Come here."

I shrugged and made my way over. As soon as I was there he pointed to a mixing bowl with a whisk in it. "Get two cups of powdered sugar, a cup of milk, a stick of butter, and two drops of whatever color food coloring you like."

"You want me to… make icing?" I asked beginning to pull the ingredients he called for out of the cabinet and measure them out.

"I want to test you," he smiled again. Another fake one. What was this guy's problem? I shook my head and got to work. Soon I had made purple icing just because the normal primary colors were boring. Blue was really my favorite color though, but I wanted to mix things up.

"Done." He stopped whatever he was doing to look at my work, stuck his finger in it, and popped his finger into his mouth.

"You added extra sugar," he stated knowingly. "And… salt? Is that really salt?"

"Makes for a better sweet," I said. "Am I done now? Would you like me to throw it away?"

"No, I'm going to use it on the cake I'm making for the window. Good job." His whole cheerful act was getting annoying so I just shrugged and walked out toward the stairs to go to our room. Takeru watched me from the table where Mai had been talking to him. Mai's mother Cole had just come in as well.

Flopping down on the bed I stared up at the ceiling feeling very blah. Boring, boring, boring. "Uhg," I grumbled sitting back up. I would have to do something. Cooking wasn't something I considered fun anyway, it was just something I had to do. Something I considered fun was going on adventures. If only I were still a kid. Well, who was to say I couldn't act like one for just a day? I grinned to myself and wondered if I could sneak outside without Takeru noticing. He would be sure to tail me if he did. I couldn't have that. I wouldn't want to embarrass myself. I was supposed to be eighteen, and mature. Papa had left me in charge of taking care of Takeru after all.

I crept into the hallway and noticed a window at the end of it. Perfect. Tiptoeing over to it, I opened it and looked out. There was a tree close enough I could reach the branch. A short leap off of the window sill and I caught the branch and climbed carefully toward a lower one. Soon I was on solid ground.


	3. Not a Fairy

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon nor any of the characters.**_ Also I haven't played Tree of Tranquility so I'm kind of improvising after getting hyped up and reading game summaries so any errors… were kind of planned for. I'm addicted to Harvest Moon games but I can't afford a wii._

I dusted the little fragments of bark dirt off of on my skirt and looked around. To my left it looked like the town just ended and wilderness began. A mischievous smile curved my lips and I ran off in that direction. Soon I on a little dirt path and out of sight from anyone who would pass by on the more beaten road that ran near to the town. I sighed and looked ahead of me making ready to probably get lost and be hiking for a while. My smile turned to a grin. I just couldn't help it. The thought of actually getting lost on this island was very wishful thinking. It was miniscule in comparison with the city Takeru and I had come from.

I walked for a good fifteen minutes before really taking in my surroundings. It looked like… not too far off either, in a clearing was a very large tree. What attracted my eyes in the direction was the voices I could hear. They sounded like whimpers and cries of pain or sorrow of some sort. The tree I could see as I got closer, was shriveled up and very pathetic looking though still ridiculously enormous. I still hadn't found the source of the voices though they sounded like children. I approached the tree and peaked around it gasping at what I saw. Teeny, tiny, weird looking little people were floating in the air, one of them bawling more obnoxiously than the others.

"Hey," one of them stated looking straight at me. "What's a human doing here in the forest?"

"What is it staring at?" another asked taking notice of me, though they talked as if I couldn't hear them. I backed up a step but didn't take my eyes off of them.

"Faries are real?" I whispered in disbelief.

"Fairies?" the smallest one stopped crying and gaped at me. "What are fairies?"

"Wait…" All three were silent for a moment before they started screaming hysterically. "IT CAN SEE US! WHAT DO WE DO? AHH!"

My eyes were probably as wide as dinner plates by this point before I burst into laughter at their antics. One had to admit, it was pretty cute even though I thought I was going crazy at the same time. They were zooming around in the air like drunken humming birds, bumping into each other randomly and still screaming though if these were attempts to flee they weren't getting anywhere.

"I have an idea!" the smallest one piped up suddenly screeching to a halt and causing another one to hit him and fall to the ground holding his head. "Human, you will help us!"

"I have a very active imagination," I muttered grinning at the three little enigmas before me. I still refused to believe they were actually real. No way.

"We are not in your imagination. See," the small one said coming over and slapping me on the face.

I sat silently for a moment as they watched me. "…ow." I stated at last and narrowed my eyes at the little creature.

He smirked and proclaimed once again, "Human, you will help us." I had never doubted my reflexes before and what with having just been smacked across the face I had a little built up energy. My arm flicked out and grabbed the little thing that was ordering me around and he let out the shrillest scream I've ever heard.

"What possessed you to think I would help you?" I muttered watching as the other two little guys picked up the rhythm of flying erratically through the air again at lack of ideas of how to save their comrade.

"You can see us. You have to help us! What other choice do we have?" he asked struggling to get free from my grasp. "The harvest goddess disappeared. We're afraid that she can't return because this big dried up tree is her home and it's always been so full of blooms and healthy until now."

"A… harvest goddess?" I stared at the tree a moment before shaking my head. "I'm really going crazy if figments of my mind are telling me some sort of higher power exists." I laughed.

"Just give up Jiji," one of the other creatures said to the one in my hand. "She's too stubborn to listen to us. We'll just have to figure out a way to help the harvest goddess on our own."

"So this harvest goddess was the girl in my dream," I murmured looking at the shriveled tree. "She's dead right? She was dead looking in my dream…"

"You had a dream about her!?" Suddenly the other two creatures were in my face a little too close for comfort. Jiji, the small one, had stopped struggling in my hand and come to the resolution of leaning his tiny little head on his arm while he waited for me to let him go. They didn't have wings so I wondered how they flew. "You must be destined to help us then," the two other's chirruped. I only rolled my eyes and batted them away with my free hand.

"I'm here to take care of my brother. That's all." Sighing I opened the hand that the smallest—Jiji—was trapped in and he flew at me immediately taking hold of my hair and pulling… hard. I screamed in protest as he yanked my head into the tree by the threads of my carefully washed, conditioned, and kept hair. I held the throbbing place near my temple and threw blind hits at the evil little thing. How dare he!

"Human!" he proclaimed appearing just in front of me so that I couldn't reach him without him having a chance of escape. "You are the chosen one. Wise up and get ready because you WILL be helping us."

"Damn it," I cursed. "That hurt!"

"Too bad," Jiji shot back with a serious expression that threatened to break into a grin. Little demon was like me way too much to make me comfortable.

"Geeze, fine." I massaged my head. "What do you want me to do?"

The grin came out naturally on his little face, the dark eyes sparkling as he did so. "Make rainbows."

* * *

Begrudgingly I sat at the table back in the Kirsh Inn glaring at my plate because if I glared at what I really wanted to glare at it could cause problems. What I wanted to glare at was sitting on my shoulder humming softly to himself in his little spritey voice. Jiji had accompanied me back.

"What crawled up your butt and died?" Takeru asked kicking me under the table. I tried my best to ignore him. The whole situation was not my cup of tea at all. Why me? Why couldn't they have picked someone else for this job? The simple breakdown of what I was expected to do was that I had to "do my best" so that I could make rainbows that would join the landmasses of the island and bring back the harvest goddess. Jiji had explained that he and the other two were "harvest sprites"—their clothing representing that they were not the colored harvest sprites but the ones that handled more important matters. Jiji, for instance, was dressed solely in black the other two one being white and the other grey.

"Fine be that way," Takeru grumbled.

"Your brother's not happy with you, you know. Why won't you talk to him?" Jiji sang tugging my hair lightly. I glared harder at the food in front of me.

"If you don't like this I can make you something else," I heard beside me. Looking up I saw Chihaya watching me with a concerned face though I could see underneath it he looked as irritated as I did. Did it bother him that much that I seemingly didn't like his food? Really it wasn't his food at all, it was Jiji's orders.

"Who is he?" Jiji asked and though I wasn't looking at him I knew there was an enormous grin on his face. "He likes to put on a mask huh?"

"It's not the food," I sighed eventually. "I'm just a little tired and stressed is all." Standing up I pushed my plate over to Takeru and walked toward the stairs. No one called after me to make me stop, so I didn't. I just continued up and into the bedroom where I buried myself beneath the blankets in the dark. Jiji somehow ended up under them with me… much to my dismay.

He curled up against my stomach seeing as I was laying down and began humming again before stopping and sitting silent a moment. "I really like you," he said finally running a tiny hand through his green hair. "You're the only human that I've really talked to much, but you're really not that bad deep down are you?"I huffed thinking how bad a judge of character the little guy was.

"Well, I don't like you." That said I grabbed him and set him outside of my cover tent.

"You're pretty cute human," he stated laughing from outside of the blankets. Soon I found he had crept back in with me. "If I were a human I would chase after you. But of course, I'm a sprite and sadly there are no female sprites. We can't love anyone but the harvest goddess." Once again he curled up against my stomach. I didn't protest, really I was lonely and I needed the company right now. "Goodnight cute human Arika."

"Night Jiji," I replied.

* * *

"Arika, Arika, wake up." Opening my eyes I was blinded by the light on the ceiling and the sun that streamed through our open door. Takeru stood over me with a rare grin. "The mayor said our house should be done soon."

I blinked. "Really? That's nice to know," I replied before a yawn escaped. I sat up having completely forgotten about the little black clad sprite, but not for long. Still crashed but cuddled in my lap was Jiji.

"Human," he muttered. "Go back to sleep, it's too early." I looked down to see him and was set in shocked silence for a moment before letting out my breath remembering the day before.

"Something wrong?" Takeru asked not failing to notice my gaze or the air around me. He couldn't see or hear the sprite like I could.

"Nothing," I smiled up at him. "What's on today's schedule?"

He sat beside me. "Well, I guessed that when I couldn't find you yesterday you went off exploring, so either you can show me around… or we can start working early." I stared at him blankly. Start working? "The mayor suggested we get a little money saved up so we can have crops."

Oh, yeah. The original purpose for moving here was to become farmers and live happily ever after off of hard work. I silently cursed in remembrance. I wanted to be an artist, but no. I had made a promise to Papa. I was a city rat not meant to do hard labor. Curse this crazy food obsessed town. Discretely I picked up Jiji being careful not to wake him up and grabbed a little purse that latched around my waist. Excusing myself to use the bathroom I stuffed toilet paper into my little bag and set the sprite carefully inside smiling as he emitted a cute little moan of protest from being moved.

"Lucky you," I told him. "You get to sleep in."

"Ready," I said meeting Takeru downstairs for breakfast.

"Good," he smiled motioning to the food on the table. On my plate was another stack of the pancakes I had complimented the morning before. Chihaya watched me carefully from behind the bar in the kitchen. I'm sure he was afraid I would turn away his food again, but I practically attacked those little flapjacks. The relief was obvious on his face. I was starving from not eating the night before.

Mai approached our table timidly watching me as I devoured the last bites of buttery goodness. "You're scarier than me when I eat," she said and I heard a small chuckled from the kitchen. "Do you want any more?"

I shook my head. "I'm fine now."

"You're too skinny. Please eat more." Chihaya appeared out of nowhere placing another plate of pancakes in front of me.

I looked up at him with a hardened gaze. "I'm full," I stated. He recoiled a little but regained his composure and sighed.

"Intimidating girls are not very attractive," he muttered taking back the plate.

"What did you say?" I growled.

The fake smile plastered on his face again. "I had thought you were pretty cute, but not anymore."

My mouth hung slack. Did he have no dignity? Jerk. I seethed. "Never will I compliment a dish you make ever again."

"I know you like my pancakes regardless. It's a little too late for that," he stated walking back toward the kitchen.

I caught sight of Mai's face before she turned to follow him. Was that… nah. She wouldn't be upset because of that would she? Well, maybe she was. I had caught a little wind that she liked the young chef. Of course she could have him. I wasn't flirting, I was genuinely annoyed.

"You're charm never ceases to amaze me," Takeru said looking at me from across the table. "You always get so worked up."

"You're no better," I countered. "The infamously cold Takeru."

He raised a brow and grinned. "I'm flattered. Shall we go?"

"Sure." We both stood and exited the inn. "What kind of work will we be doing?"

Takeru walked with his hands shoved into his pockets. "Farm work."

If I could have I would have turned back and ran then. "Why?" I whined. "Why is life so cruel?"

"Such a crybaby," he grumbled.

Soon we were at the mayor's mansion. Takeru knocked on the door and not long after it opened to reveal a young man in ritzy clothing… good lord those shorts were hideous. I raised a brow at his sweater vest in distaste as well. Who wore that kind of thing?

"Can I help you?" he asked and what an arrogant air.

"Yeah actually," Takeru's face instantly morphed from polite to annoyed at the other boy's tone. "The mayor wanted to see us. If you're his secretary it would be good of you to show us in."

The boy frowned. "I'm his son."

I pushed past the boy tugging my brother behind me and walked down the hallway to a room where I could hear someone mumbling. The older man looked up as we entered. "Ah, you must be Miss Yumei. I met your brother earlier today at the inn," he said with a smile. "My name is Herbal, the mayor of Waffle Town." He stood reaching over his desk for my hand.

"I'm glad you arrived now," he stated shuffling his papers that strewn on his desk into an orderly pile. "I just finished. So now, I've got plenty of time to escort you two to the Souffle Farm."

I would have said what I thought, but I know it would have been rude so I kept the sarcastic phrase of "oh yay" to myself.

"I'm leaving now Father," the boy called from the foyer.

"Ah, have a good day at work Gil," Herbal called back with a wave. "Now, shall we be off?"

We followed the mayor across town until we had gotten to the outskirts of the little civilization and were standing in front of a rather homely looking building, fields of crops and grass stretching out past that. "Thank you sir," Takeru stated shaking the mayor's hand again.

"It's no problem at all. The owner's of Souffle Farm run this store this time of day. I'm sure they could use the help and this will be your homestay until your home is completed." Herbal smiled at me. "I'm sure they will enjoy having you both."

Enjoying having us was something I wondered about when we walked into the little shop.

"I told you it's not!" the woman shouted with a furious expression. The man behind the counter's face was burgundy.

"It is!" he argued.

Takeru coughed and both of them turned to look at us with surprised glances.

"Is there something you need?" the man asked somewhat rudely.

"Well, no. We—" I started to explain.

"Then go on. You're in the way here," the woman spat.

My eyes widened and I clutched Takeru's hand for comfort. He squeezed back. "The mayor sent us," he cut in. "We're here to work." Perhaps Takeru was better suited for places like this than me. He seemed completely at ease and not in the least bit intimidated.

"Oh," the woman sighed. "Good, then off to work with you. We have a lot of things that need to be done and the work won't do itself. The animals have been fed, but we have weeds in the crop field and need to cut grass. There's also some cleaning up that needs to be done in the barn and chicken coop, and the repairs." Chicken coop? Oh how disgusting. Also what experiences I had had with the birds before if not eating them were always unpleasant. They were mean. And there was so much to do. How would we ever finish it all?

"We'll talk over dinner and after then you can go retrieve your things from the inn. You'll be staying with us until your home construction is completed. For now, we need to start on the chores immediately. Come with me, I'll show you both what you'll be doing," the man called.

Takeru led me out the back door after the man trembling. I couldn't do anything like those things that rude woman had listed. I couldn't do manual labor. What had I gotten myself into? The man led us to a barn full of noisy animals. It stunk too. "These stalls need to be cleaned out and fresh hay put in. The horses need to be washed and brushed and the cows could use a good hosing off too. I'll leave you to that little one," he told me.

"Eh?!" I stared at him with wide eyes. "But I've never—"

"You'll do fine," the man interrupted before he and Takeru left me alone in that smelly place. Something rubbed against my leg and I jumped with a little shriek falling flat on my butt in the middle of the dirt floor. Sitting before me was a little black and white cat. It stared at me with wide golden eyes before uttering a little "mew."

"I can't believe I'm doing this," I sighed. I opened my bag and looked inside. Good god was Jiji a heavy sleeper. "Hey, wake up. You have to help me."

"Human… no…" he groaned and I pulled him out.

"Jiji please," I said in a baby voice petting the little sprite's rabbit soft hair since his little hat had fallen off.

A large smile formed on his face. "Okay." He opened an eye to look at me. "But you owe me."

With Jiji's direction I was able to find a rake and shovel and begin cleaning the stalls. One by one I filled them each with fresh hay and then, one by one, I led out five horses by a halter and soaked them in shampoo and conditioner. It took me all day, but once it was dark I had brushed down the last dampened cow and set all the now less stinky animals back in their stalls. Of course being the nice person I was I hadn't forgotten to spray the cat with the water hose and then proceed to share a five minute laugh with Jiji as it hissed and shot off quicker than lightning. Problem was: Arika + farm work = Arika really needs to take a shower- also known as "Ew."

I met up with Takeru as I was heading back toward the lit building we had first come from, his shoes covered in dried crusting mud and grasses. "You smell worse than I do," I stated wrinkling my nose at his sweat soaked shirt. At least it was just a t-shirt.

"I was doing field work in the sun. What do you expect?" he replied too weary to point out I wasn't looking too hot myself. "How was your day?"

"I got kicked once," I admitted wincing at the thought of the bruise that I knew had been developing on my thigh. "Stupid cow. The horses weren't all that bad though and I cleaned their cat too." Jiji snickered on my shoulder.

Takeru laughed. "I'm sure it appreciated that."

"I want a long hot bath," I muttered.

"Ditto," my brother stated reaching for my hand as we came within three feet of the little store. So he didn't want to face those people anymore than I did eh? Made sense. They were not very nice to us earlier.

"We're done," Takeru called opening the door.

"Alright, head on back to the inn and get your things and I'll start making dinner," the woman stated. "Call me Rucola by the way. I'm sorry about this morning. We've just been rather stressed recently. We're really grateful for your help. Don't mind my husband though if his mood doesn't improve much."

"Thank you. I think that Arika and I were afraid you were truly in a serious fight," Takeru said honestly. "I'm happy to know you aren't and I can tell you're relieved too." He smiled at me.

"Go on and get your things and you can use our bath back at the house. The house is just past that hill behind you. I'll have dinner ready after you two are cleaned up." Rucola smiled warmly and shooed us off. Out of politeness we had never gone back into the store and the fall night chill was setting in on our walk back. I shivered and started trotting toward the inn once I could see it. I opened the door and poked my head in only a couple customers sat inside being waited on so Chihaya's and Mai's heads popped up when the bell rung.

"Arika?" Mai asked approaching me. Once she got a foot away she stopped. "Oh, you smell like you've worked hard today." I could see the distaste on her face although she tried to hide it.

"Do you mind to um… get our things from upstairs? They should be orderly and the suitcases closed, but we can't get them ourselves unless you want to clean up our trail of hard earned grime," I smiled meekly pleading with my eyes.

"Sure," Mai said cheerfully before heading up the steps and disappearing. Chihaya poked his curly haired head out of the kitchen.

"Nice hair Arika," he snickered. I glared wrapping my arms around myself as Takeru finally caught up and stood beside me on the stoop outside of the door. "You smell like wet dog too. So you won't be eating my pancakes in the morning tomorrow?" the waitor/chef asked with a cocky grin.

"Nope, thank goodness," I spat turning up my nose.

"Working girls are unattractive too," he said with that same grin. At least this grin was real, but I wasn't sure I liked it better than the fake one so I frowned at him and stuck out my tongue.

"Here," Mai said handing me the bags as she re-emerged and approached me not letting herself get too close. I sympathized, though my nose couldn't smell it anymore thank god.

"Thanks Mai," I said with a smile. "I'll come and visit you soon okay?"

"I'd like that," she said before a light blush appeared. "There's something I want to ask you when you do."

"Alright," I turned and handed off one of the suitcases to my brother. "Bye then." I gave a short wave and shut the door.

We made our way back to the Souffle Farm and over the little hill toward the house found our way to the bath first. **(Author's Note: I'm going to make it similar to a traditional Japanese home where the bath is separate from the rest of the house. Improvising is wonderful.) **Takeru and I walked in with his duffle bag slung over his shoulder and tossed it down on the wooden floor stripping off his shirt. I turned away ready for a good wait before I could get cleaned up myself.

"Let me see your leg," he said. I opened my eyes and turned my head to find him still in his boxers which was the same as when we had gone to the beach together in swim suits except after all those years of solitude he had paled up a lot. I tried to roll up my pant leg, but the capris wouldn't come up high enough. "Just take them off," he said.

"Takeru!" I exclaimed turning crimson immediately.

"I'm your brother dammit Arika! Jeeze, you're sick. Unless you aren't wearing underwear then I don't see the problem." I blushed deeper at even the thought but after a moment I complied and stripped off the pants.

"Wow," he whistled staring at my leg. "That thing is black."

I stared off in another direction not comfortable at all. "Are you done?" I asked.

"Ask that Rucola lady to help you treat that," Takeru ordered. Then he stood up from his kneeling position beside me and walked into the other room of the bath house. I could hear him splash through the water as he settled in and decided I would clean off his nasty shoes while I waited.

There was a hand pump for your feet in this room so I started it and filled a pan with water. Then I proceeded to scrub the grime off of his shoes while sitting on the step. "Mew," I heard. I looked up to see the black and white cat staring at me from about two feet away outside the door in the dark.

"Creepy cat," Jiji said on my shoulder still. He'd been so quiet I had almost forgotten he was there. "Why does it keep following you?" I shook my head. Jiji knew I was unable to answer since Takeru could hear me. But I agreed. It was creepy. "Hey get lost flea bag!" Jiji yelled making me giggle.

The cat's eyes moved and its tail flicked. "Demon cat," I muttered getting back to cleaning Takeru's shoes. "When I'm done if you're still there I'm going to dump this nasty water on you."

Jiji smirked. "Good idea," he praised.

"Mew," it replied watching us. Apparently the cat too could see Jiji.

"So are you going to visit your friends?" I whispered to Jiji. "While I take my bath I mean."

He shook his head with his usual smirk. "I have to get clean too." Nasty little…

"Not a chance," I said firmly.

"I told you already," Jiji sighed. "Harvest Sprites can only love the Harvest Goddess. We don't react like humans and how do you know that one of us hasn't seen you bare before? I've seen lots of human's come to the pond without clothes, you're no different so I know it won't be exciting."

"No."

Five minutes later I sat in the tub surrounded by steam using more soap than necessary to make enough bubbles to cover me because on my barely submerged shoulder sat Jiji. Our clothes in neat piles by the door and towels awaited us on a shelf near there. "I feel very awkward," I mumbled sinking a little lower in the water.

"You shouldn't," Jiji chuckled. Then he leapt off of my shoulder and dove into the water making me more than nervous. He resurfaced on the opposite side of the tub and waved at me. I released the breath I'd been holding, but couldn't get rid of my blush. I would never get used to this. He began the breast stroke as he swam back toward me gracefully though I could barely make out his head through the bubbles. "How much longer?" he asked.

"I still need to wash my hair," I answered grabbing my special shampoo and conditioner and working both into my hair at the same time.

"Can I use some?" Jiji asked.

"What difference would it make?" I inquired closing one eye to keep the drip from getting in and making it hurt. "Your hair is so soft anyway."

"So what," Jiji replied floating up to my head and taking a handful of the thick lather and working it into his own hair. "Maybe then you'll fall in love with me."

"Hah, hah," I grumbled. "In what universe?"

That smirk again. "Hopefully not this one. The Harvest Goddess would rip my arms off."

Soon Jiji, Takeru, and myself all sat at the table in the kitchen. Jiji of course was on my shoulder as usual and he smelled just like my mint shampoo which didn't bother me at all. The meal before us was wonderful, though I couldn't stomach as much of it as my mouth wanted to. It was too delicious. Jiji of course snuck some of the small pieces off of my plate at times as he had with all the meals I had had before.

"So you two did good jobs today," the man who had yet to introduce himself stated. "But the horses weren't quiet as shiny as I've seen them before and some of the grass wasn't fully grown but somehow ended up being cut."

"Dear, that's very rude," Rucola snapped over at him. "Sorry for him. So how about an introduction now?"

"I'm Takeru and this is my sister Arika," Takeru stated with a polite smile.

"My name is Cresson," the man stated through a mouthful of food.

"And my name is Taylor," I heard someone say behind us in the direction of the front door. "Why are we introducing ourselves?" A man poked his head into the room and looked around seeing us. "Ah, new workers?"

"Yes honey. Dinner is in the kitchen on the stove. Go and fix yourself a plate," Rucola told him in a way that made me suspect that Taylor was their child… well, fully grown child.

"Sure thing ma," he said coming back into the dining room with a plate piled so high I just about fell out of my seat.

"Hello there. I'm glad to know there are two of you," Taylor stated cheerfully as he began to cut his fish. "Next thing you know though, you guys will have your own farm to take care of."

"It will be nice," Takeru commented continuing to eat. I didn't know if he was crazy or if he was just saying that, but I definitely did NOT think it would be nice.

"What about you little one?" Taylor asked looking at me. What was with everyone calling me little? "Do you think you will like having a farm?"

"If Takeru's healthy and having a social life, then I suppose I'll go along with it," I muttered and my brother's sideways glare at me did not go unnoticed. "I'm into more adventurous things than farming."

"Eh, well I guess it can get a little monotonous, but it keeps a roof over our heads." This Taylor guy was really optimistic. "I think you'll grow out of that phase and want to settle down soon. Maybe you'll meet the right guy in Waffle Town. Who knows."

I shrugged though inwardly I was screaming that I would never date any of these second-rate losers. From what I'd seen, the guys here were not charming at all. Especially not Chihaya. Jerk. "I've never had much luck with boyfriends," I admitted giving him a false smile to try and keep the air light. There was no point in bringing everyone else in the room down with me on my mood spiral.

"You're wearing a mask now too, ne?" Jiji stated. Sadly he seemed to notice more than my own twin which made me wonder how much I didn't see in Takeru. Hopefully it was just that my brother was dense and not me as well.

"I'm going to go on to bed please," I said and Rucola and Cresson nodded. "Thank you. Excuse me."

I walked tiredly up the steps of the Souffle Farms owners and collapsed on the bed in the room they had let me use. Apparently it was their daughter's but she was gone on a trip somewhere, which was fine by me. The pastels weren't my thing though. Either something so bright it made sleep impossible or so dark you were uncomfortable. Pastels were too blah.

I could hear their muffled voices downstairs. Really after the first day it was as though Takeru and I had switched roles. I wonder what Papa would think if he saw me now, the one who was trying to keep everyone out, uncomfortable and lonely. All the while his once unsociable son was making friends with everyone in town and laughing over dinner about something I had no idea about. I used to be the responsible one. "What happened?" I whispered.

"To what?" Jiji chimed laying on my stomach. "Are you upset?"

I just yawned and shut my eyes. "It's nothing, don't worry about it."


	4. Pervert

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon nor any of the characters.**_ Also I haven't played Tree of Tranquility so I'm kind of improvising after getting hyped up and reading game summaries so any errors… were kind of planned for. I'm addicted to Harvest Moon games but I can't afford a wii._

AUTHOR'S NOTE AND APOLOGY FOR MY LACK OF BRAIN:

_Eheh… well I noticed something when I was reading another fan fiction on this site. I misspelt Akari's name after the first time I used it. (Very embarrassed I am… believe me.) But regardless I don't intend to correct it seeing as it hasn't caused any problems. Akari is the real name for the starting character though I believe. I've been calling her Arika for a while. I'd rather keep it that way because it's way less confusing for me and I prefer Arika to Akari anyway—even if Arika is the name of the girl from one of the "Mai Otome" series. I'll survive. I just feel ridiculous for making such a mistake. Sorry guys._

* * *

The next day my job was to go out with Taylor to tend to the crops. We had to water them. Jiji lay sleeping in my bag as he had the morning before and I had no idea what Takeru was doing or where he was. I hadn't seen him that day yet.

"Which one of you is older?" Taylor asked at random as we walked along the rows of vegetables.

"I am," I stated. "But only by forty-three seconds."

"Ah," he sighed moving on to the next row. He was not the excessively handsome type, and he was a good bit older than me, but not enough to seem like it was weird to have conversations like this with him. "So no boyfriends then?" He smiled at me in that way that made a person's eyes crinkle up.

I laughed noting that his good humor was contagious. "No. I'm not in regret of it either," I answered finishing a row and moving on. Taylor was much faster than me at doing this.

"You seem a little overwhelmed by the change," he started. I looked up. "You miss the city huh?"

I nodded. I really did. I missed the tall buildings, the way you could get completely lost and end up in a scary part of town, all my friends, the lack of animals, my old job, the activities you could do when you were bored, and our papa.

"So are you only here because your brother is being friendly again?" Taylor asked and I was silent. "Sorry. I guess I'm being too nosy."

"No," I stated. "Takeru has been closed up for a long time and I'm happy he's happy again. I think he was angry with our father, so when we moved out here he started to act like Takeru again and stopped being hateful and cold. I didn't like to see him like that. I just wish he would have told Papa goodbye."

"You're a good sister," Taylor said finishing off his last row. "I think you and Anise will get along well when she gets back. She'll like you."

"Is Anise your sister?" I asked perking up a little.

Taylor wiped off his brow and walked over to me helping me finish off my side. "Yes. You don't seem too talkative, and what I have heard you say seems like something Anise would say. You're being selfless and that's something she does. It's very heartwarming to know there is another person in the world like her. Our parents sent her off on this trip even though she wanted to stay and help around the farm. They forced her to take a break."

"She sounds like a very nice person. I'm not really like that. You haven't spent enough time around me yet," I snickered. "Ask Takeru. He'll tell you how much of a pain I am."

"Oh I doubt that," Taylor said softly. "He'll praise everything you've ever done for him. I already spoke to him last night. By the way, he mentioned to my mother that you were hurt?"

"It's not that bad," I grumbled. "He's overreacting. I got a bruise is all. It will be fine." That morning I wore a denim skirt so I didn't doubt you could see the edge of the mark poking out in a boiling purple.

"My mom will give you ice for it when we get inside," Taylor professed watering the last crop. "Come on. That's all for this morning."

I followed the man back to the house and sat begrudgingly in a dining room chair trying to hide the fact that Rucola had forced me to remove my skirt. The bruise was just below my hip so I couldn't very well wear anything but underwear when she examined it. Soon enough I was having to sit and shiver with an icepack against my leg. The woman draped a good sized blanket on my shoulders in attempt to hide my lack of a skirt and keep me a little warmer. I huddled up in it and sat quietly watching as she went about fixing breakfast. Takeru came down the stairs yawning and laughed when he saw me. "What are you doing?"

I shot a glare at him. "She's treating her bruise," Rucola answered for me.

"Ah," Takeru sat beside me and leaned on my shoulder. "I'm still tired," he mumbled. He must have stayed out late last night. I wondered why. Perhaps that was why they chose me to water crops this morning.

"Good morning," Taylor said to Takeru as he waltzed into the kitchen and stole some sausage before his mother caught him and pushed him out.

Our breakfast was good. I hadn't had a mother-cooked meal in a long time so you can imagine how Takeru and I loved it. Our mouths were very satisfied with everything and maybe it didn't taste as good as Chihaya's pancakes (though I would never tell him that) it was one of the best breakfasts I had eaten in a long time.

Later that day—after a lot of toiling away with work which sucked—we were showered and in town under strict orders to meet the rest of the residents from Rucola. Cresson was fairly distant from what I could tell. We only spoke to him during work or at the table when he graded the jobs we had done. I wasn't thrilled when Takeru announced he was going to visit the people who owned the Chiffon Tailoring. That little girl made me nervous. People like that were the type I tried to keep away from Takeru. Kotomi though, she would be no problem. So in the end I vouched to go with him.

The bell dinged and once again that same girl showed up her face like the sun when she saw Takeru was with me. She practically ran the counter she was behind over in her hurry to get nearer to us. "Hello and welcome to Chiffon Tailoring. My name is Roomi, how may I help you?" The curled pigtails she had still swayed from her erratic movements.

Jiji clung to my neck completely terrified by her. "She's creepier than that cat," he squeaked. I was inclined to agree.

"You must be Takeru," she stated eyeing up my brother. "I have the perfect outfit for you."

"Is Kotomi here?" I asked stopping the smaller girl in her tracks.

She turned and looked at me for a moment before nodding and proceeding into another room through a door. Soon she came back out with clothes in one hand and a pale wrist in the other. She drug the quiet girl out with her. "Here she is," Roomi announced.

I smiled at the timid girl. "Hello again. I wanted to visit you."

Her cheeks flamed but she offered a small smile in return. I found that really Roomi wasn't anything I wanted to deal with and that I would sadly have to leave Takeru to defend himself. He didn't seem too put off by her which was reassuring none the less. I approached Kotomi and leaned on the counter watching her fidgit. "I love the coat," I told her.

"I'm glad," she replied softly.

"I was wondering if maybe you could teach me how to do some of this," now I was being shy. I never asked for help—for anything.

"Oh no, I couldn't," Kotomi was flustered all the sudden. I laughed at her reaction.

"If you're being modest then someone needs a wakeup call," I muttered. "You don't have to teach me if you don't want to, but don't try to say you aren't good enough to be a teacher."

Behind me I could hear Roomi torturing my brother and sighed. "Does anyone else work here?" I knew we had to be thorough in meeting everyone.

"Other than my sister and myself, there is my mother," Kotomi murmured.

I looked behind me. "She's your sister?"

Kotomi nodded. I sighed feeling confused as to how siblings could be THAT entirely different.

"I'll go and get her if you wish to meet my mother," she offered bringing my attention back to the reserved girl. I smiled and nodded.

Their mother's name was Shelly and she was a very nice woman, just seemed tired after having to tell Roomi three times to restrain herself. I wondered how old the kid was. Middle school maybe, but that was right. There wasn't a school on this island. All the kids just worked for a living.

Next we headed to the Rusk Supermarket. Upon entering we were greeted by an assortment of items. Jiji released a little trill of delight from my shoulder. "Look at that machine!" he chirped. I couldn't help but to smile at his excitement.

"Hello there. You two must be the Yumei twins yes?" a man from behind the counter asked. "I'm Simon and my wife and daughter are in the back I believe. You can go introduce yourselves if you want. I look forward to doing business with the two of you.

"Hey, do you see that watering can Human?" Jiji pulled on a lock of my hair and pointed to the left. "Can you get that? Please?"

"A watering can?" I mumbled approaching it. I wasn't all that special. Just a tin watering can.

"If you buy that then we'll be even for me helping you yesterday," Jiji exclaimed.

"Um, how much is this?" I asked Simon.

"Oh that?" he scratched his head. "You might ask my daughter Phoebe. She's the one who made it."

"Oh alright, thank you." I then followed my brother to the back of the store carrying the little watering can with me. In the back room was a woman sitting at a desk going through paper work and a girl off in a corner who seemed completely oblivious that we had entered the room at all.

"Hello," the woman said looking up with a smile. "Takeru and Arika right?" We nodded. "I'm Brun." Her eyes fell on the watering can . "Phoebe, someone's here." The girl acted as though she hadn't heard a word. "Phoebe!"

A little pop and the girl turned away from the contraption she was working with wrench in hand and a smoke covered face. "Huh?" she said innocently.

Takeru fought back his grin. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Yumei Takeru," he said extending his hand.

"Oh hello," Phoebe smiled. "Oh! That watering can, did you want it?" She asked me.

"I was hoping to maybe grow some flowers," I stated quietly. Well, it was a decent lie I guess.

Phoebe smiled through the charcoal color on her face. Her emerald eyes gleaming. "Take it. You can have it on me."

Jiji did a little victory dance on my shoulder. "Yoshi!" he exclaimed. "One step closer!"

"Ah, thank you," I told her softly bowing.

"You're quiet huh?" Phoebe said with a grin. "Cute." Yet again someone who didn't know me. I saw the "yeah, whatever" look on Takeru's face too.

"Human! We must go!" Jiji tugged on my hair. "I'll show you where, but follow me." He was floating now in front of me.

"Um, I uh… need to go to the bathroom. Please excuse me!" I blurted sprinting from the room after Jiji.

"Arika!" my brother yelled. I could hear him chasing after me until I got to the edge of town. His heavy footsteps disappeared. I was grateful too.

"Good we lost him," Jiji said. "This way!" He then darted back toward the town. Jeeze, where was he taking me? We ended up in front of city hall in the square or rather near it. Over to the side near a small drop off into the sea Jiji floated by a green flower. I had never seen a green flower in my life, but hey, there's a first for everything.

"Water it," Jiji commanded.

"I don't have any water stupid!" I growled.

Jiji slapped me on the forehead leaving a little sting. "Just do it. You'll see when you do."

"Okay, okay. Chill." I knelt down looking in the can to confirm it was empty before feeling ridiculous and watering the flower with an empty watering can. Small sparkling droplets fell from the tip onto the flower. "What?" I whispered and the flower moved like it was dancing before POOF! It became a little sprite decked out in green.

"Ack! Stop it! I'm awake already!" it complained trying to escape the water.

"Dana," Jiji sang. "Give us the recipe!"

"Recipe?" I asked.

"Uhg Jiji, go away," the sprite called Dana grumbled. "I'll tell the human, but you don't have to hear."

"Fine," Jiji grumbled his good mood vanishing as he disappeared. I watched the little green sprite carefully now that my companion had left. He yawned and stretched.

"I have sympathy for you human. To think you have to endure Jiji day in and day out," he said. "Let's see if I can remember. I've been asleep so long it may be hard."

"I want you to bring me a baked yam, a koi, a seashell, an apple, and a spice bake. When you do that, I'll mix your rainbow for you, but those are the ingredients," Dana instructed before issuing another yawn. "See you when you get them then. Goodnight." With that he returned to the state of a green flower. I blinked and stood when I heard quiet laughing.

"And he thought I would actually leave. Idiot," Jiji appeared again and sat on my shoulder. "So you need to get a fishing pole then. Let's go to the Fishing Store!"

"You have way too much energy," I griped before following the little black hat wearing thing as he zoomed off again. I ignored the look on a couple people's faces as I shot past them on the street.

"It's here!" Jiji stated flying into the building near the dock. I stopped breathing heavily and holding onto a conveniently placed lamp post. Finally I wasn't breathing quite as hard and had the energy to walk into the shop. Inside was a man and a boy.

"Dad, we have a customer," the boy called when I walked in. I could see Jiji zipping happily along near the rafters and scowled.

"Hm, well I believe your brother was in here only a moment ago," the man said looking at me. "He's quite worried. He said you took off and they couldn't find you." They? He had people out looking for me? Oh great. Thanks a lot Jiji.

"I was wondering if I could buy a fishing pole," I said.

"It's about time you got back. We have a customer. You wait on her," the man said to someone behind me. I turned to see a lanky guy walking through the door with a sun hat on. He looked at me for a moment with half lidded eyes and smiled.

"What can I do for you?" He was polite.

"She wants a fishing pole of course," the man said seeming irritated. "Now get her a good one together." The smile fell from his face as he looked at the man, but when he turned to me it was fresh and new, warm as the one before it.

"Do you have a specific fish in mind?" he asked.

"Um, well yes. Koi? That's a fish right?" I shuffled my feet feeling ridiculous having run into this store without any idea what exactly I was supposed to be fishing for.

The man before me nodded and grabbed my hand pulling me forward across the room with him before stopping and pulling a rod off the rack and placing it in my hand. "This one is best for fish that size. It handles them pretty well." I tried to hide the blush that had appeared on my cheeks from the unexpected contact. "Now, I'll go show you how to use it and take you to your brother when we're done."

My head shot up. "Takeru?"

"I met him back by the pond. He asked if I had seen you and if I did to bring you back to the Souffle Farm. I've seen you and I plan to hold to my word."

"Tao," the man behind the counter called. "Make sure not to take too long so you can help your cousin. He's been working hard while you've been out lousing about all day."

"Of course Uncle," Tao replied with a smile. "Let's go." He took my hand again and led me from the building much to my embarrassment.

"I can walk on my own you know," I grumbled once we were outside and on land instead of the dock.

Tao smiled again. "I should hope you are capable of walking by yourself, but I don't want you to run away again." I narrowed my eyes and set my jaw giving up then. Why did it matter if I ran away? What was I going to do? Why was I suddenly being treated like a kid?

"Here we are," he said stopping at a stream. Jiji sat silently on my shoulder watching as everything played out. "Casting is the hard part so we'll work on that." He pulled my forward so that he stood behind me holding both of my hands on the fishing pole. I was scarlet by that point. "Just point to where you want, pull back, and let it go," he said calmly.

I tried to ignore him as the line flew through the air and landed with a plunk in the water a good many feet away. "Good job Arika-chan," he murmured into my ear. Out of nowhere he reached into my pocket making me scream.

I turned around so fast I surprised myself and almost fell into the water behind me. Tao grabbed my wrist to steady me holding up a piece of paper currency in the other hand. "You thought you could go without paying for it?" he asked cheerfully.

"I was going to pay for it!" I yelled a deeper shade of red than I had been all day. "Do you just reach into people's pants on a regular basis?!"

"Human's are amusing," Jiji snickered from my shoulder.

Tao looked confused before the realization seemed to dawn on him. He sighed. "If that's what's bothering you, don't worry. I'm not interested in you that way."

What the hell was with the guys here? I growled. "I'll go home on my own. I don't need a pervert with me."

"Arika!" I heard my name and looked around. On the nearest road was Chihaya. "Oh thank god," I heard him say. It didn't take long for him to approach us. "Are you okay? Is something wrong? Takeru came by the inn and he was really worried. He said he'd looked all through the woods but he couldn't find you. We thought something had happened."

I shook my head and grabbed my hair. "I'm fine, just being molested by random strangers." I shot a glare at Tao. He laughed. Chihaya looked confused.

"Well, you should head back before he has an aneurism." The curly headed waitor looked at the fishing pole I held and the watering can hooked to my belt purse. "Yet even more unattractive," he muttered.

"Hey!" I yelled.

"I'll let you take her then. Perhaps you would handle her better," Tao said walking back toward the Fishing Company.

Chihaya grinned. "What did you do to him little Arika?"

"I didn't do anything! He's the pervert!" I argued.

"Come on," he said shaking his head. "I'll walk with you." I didn't want him to walk with me. I was perfectly fine on my own.

"Wow, the men here are pushy," Jiji noted. He was right and I wasn't used to taking orders. I stepped back from Chihaya having totally forgotten about the stream—not a good thing to forget about. When I surfaced soaking wet and surprised Chihaya stood above me doubled over laughing. Jiji floated beside him doing the same. "Bwahahah! You look like a drowned rat!" The sprite was not helping matters either.

When Chihaya finally started to recover wiping tears from his eyes he extended and arm to help me out. I took his hand and a grin lit my face when I got the inclination to actually make the situation funny to me as well. I gave a good yank and the poor guy didn't know what hit him when he fell into the water too. I waited until he came back up for air glaring at me before I laughed. And did I laugh.

"You aren't even mildly pretty now," he growled struggling to stand up with his wet clothing.

I grinned and splashed him. "Good, I wouldn't want you to like me anyway. I'd feel bad when I had to turn you down."

Jiji was rolling on the ground now, unable to keep himself suspended any longer.

"It's cold," Chihaya sighed. "Come on, I'll phone Rucola from the inn. We need to dry off or we'll get sick." He grabbed my arm and helped me up onto dry land again. "Not that I would mind if you got sick after that stunt."

We walked down the street in silence all the way back to the Kirsh Inn. When we got their Mai promised to lend me some of her clothes to change into as Chihaya and I sat in front of the stove in the kitchen wrapped in towels trying to get dry.

"Why do you think I care whether I'm attractive or not," I dared to ask. Chihaya looked up seeming a little shocked I had spoken at all or that I had asked that particular question.

"Most girls do," he answered. "So you don't?"

"I think the situation in which I would care that much is if I had feelings for someone. I'm not sure though because I've never liked anyone really." It was an honest answer. I hadn't ever liked a boy.

"I see." Chihaya shivered and scooted a little closer to the stove. "If you've gotten me sick I'll never forgive you."

I grinned unable to control my inner child. As a kid Takeru and I had always pulled things like that on each other. Pushing him into the lake when we went swimming was a favorite hobby of mine, and Chihaya's reaction had been more priceless than Takeru's every time I had done it in the past. "I think you have an evil personality," the waitor added.

"Maybe, but you wear a mask all the time," I countered quietly. "Why don't you be yourself?"

He looked over at me with a curious gaze. His wet hair hung down in his eyes. "I am myself."

"You smile all the time and you don't feel like it. You put on a polite face and act like Mr. Perfect."

He was silent.

"I take that back." I looked over at him to see him staring at the stove. "You acted like that when I first got here, but you've dropped the fake smile routine because I made you mad when I wouldn't eat your food."

Still no response.

Mai walked in then with the clothes in her hands. "Are you dry yet Arika?" She asked.

"I'm close enough," I replied standing up as she mouthed for me to come with her. I followed her through the main room the enormous towel wrapped securely around me. Then down a hall on the first floor and into a bedroom where she shut the door and tossed me her clothes.

"I wanted to talk to you about something remember?" she asked. I nodded and dropped towel since I had my underwear on underneath. Starting to put on the sundress Mai started. "Well, I kind of have this… crush on—"

"Chihaya, I know," I cut her off.

"You did?" she seemed stunned. "Is it that obvious? He's just such a wonderful cook and he's always acting so distant from me. I wish he would like me back. He's friends with you. What do I do Arika? What do you do that makes him like you?"

"Like me?" I was confused. "He's always being rude to me, I don't call that liking someone. When you like someone you're nice to them."

"But that's how he is," Mai looked at me desperately. "He acts like that to hide it. He doesn't ever pick on me. He never hardly ever talks to me except to scold me. We grew up together and I've liked him for a long time. I just want to know what I can do so that he'll like me more."

"I really don't know what I'm supposed to tell you," I admitted. "I wasn't exactly aiming to make friends when I moved here. I'm only concerned about Takeru. I mean yeah, friends are nice and I would like some, but I honestly thought the guy didn't like me at all and that was why he was being rude. When people are rude to me it normally makes me lose respect for them and dislike them, so yes I don't mind him, but I don't enjoy him. Maybe if you don't try so hard and just ignore him that will work. That's exactly what I've been trying to do for a while."

"That sounds like it might be a solution actually," she smiled suddenly hopeful. "Thank you so much Arika!"

"Sure," I stated flatly. I was dressed and dry somewhat now. My hair was still damp, but I would bathe when I got back to the farm anyway. No way would I sleep when filthy outdoor water with fish poop had dried on top of my head. That was disgusting.

Jiji flit about the room for a bit before coming to perch on my shoulder as I sat on Mai's bed. She followed suit except she threw herself onto it looking exasperated even though I had supposedly given her a "solution" as she had called it. I wondered what she saw in Chihaya… not that I expected to understand. When girls got like _this_ over a guy I normally was thrown for a loop entirely. I understood how some guys were very attractive, and I understood that people had lust and love and hormones confusing the two quite often. I also knew very well that while I had experienced urges to crush on someone I had never gone to limits like this. It baffled me when all of my girl friends would have a phase like this… or more than one phase. I still did not understand it. Why get so worked up? Why care? What was the point? Falling in love was a fairy tale meant to keep little girls happy. Not saying I wasn't hopeful, but come on. I held hope in the back of my mind and kept it there… WAY back there. That way when I found out my suspicions of life being as crappy as I believed it was were true there wasn't as much of a shock, depression, ect.

Even if it was rude I couldn't help myself. I had to ask. "What is it that's so great about that loser?" Perhaps I could have been a little nicer about how I worded it. I didn't really think he was a loser, but I wasn't too thrilled with his attitude. Yeah, after a little while he would crack and we would probably get along fine. I just wasn't happy _now_.

"Chihaya is just himself. I can't describe it. He's just him," Mai answered my snarkiness seeming to go unnoticed. Uhg, the emphasis she put on his name made my stomach churn and not in a good way at all. I did not feel comfortable in a room with a girl who though herself love-struck.

"Well, thanks for the clothes," I said standing. "I'll bring them back tomorrow. I appreciate your help. A lot actually." The sun dress was to plain in this case to be my thing… and it was a little baggy as though it were a good two sizes too big.

"It was no problem. I didn't mind at all," Mai smiled sitting up. "You listened to me too. Thanks for that."

I nodded and left. The stairs creaked heavily as I descended. The only noise that could be heard was Chihaya cleaning up. I assumed that there weren't any customers so I figured I could easily slip outside. The guy had been so unsociable about the topic before Mai stole me away that I doubted he would say anymore to me for fear of it being released on him again. He just seemed that type of person to me. Ironically, I was right. I walked right past him as he swept under a table and he didn't even flinch. It was as though I didn't exist anymore. Well, good then. I reached the door and lifted my hand to pull down the handle.

"Sorry."

Freezing I stood stunned. How could I have been wrong? What was the world coming to? I was always right about people. And was this guy seriously apologizing? To me? After THAT? I turned timidly around wondering if it could possibly be true and as though he hadn't uttered a word the waiter was taking a dust pan and heading back toward the kitchen again to empty into the trash bin by the back door. I shook my head. I was imagining things. I then allowed the weight of my hand to press down on the handle the door swung open and chilly air blasted right up the baggy dress to my collar bone. Just lovely.


	5. Did You Know There Are Feathers in Hell?

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon nor any of the characters.**_ Also I haven't played Tree of Tranquility so I'm kind of improvising after getting hyped up and reading game summaries so any errors… were kind of planned for. I'm addicted to Harvest Moon games but I can't afford a wii._

_This is a short one I know. I'm having one of those days... sorry._

Slumping down, arms crossed, and a very evident pout on my face, Takeru paced in front of the chair he had yelled at me to sit in. "What the hell Arika?" he was flabbergasted. I had never understood this whole overly-protective nature of his. "You shoot off in the middle of getting to know these people which is rude in itself, but then you disappear for half a day?! What. The. Hell?!" Only little while before I had exited the bath in my pajamas and been attacked. Takeru had swept me into a cradle in his arms—kicking and screaming too since I had no idea it was him at first (not that knowing that made it any better). He took a deep breath before yelling some more. "What's wrong with you? That's twice you've taken off like that. I can't believe you would act this way. Why Arika? Tell me why?"

I snapped then. This had been going on for a good ten minutes and I only had so much of a wick to burn before I exploded. SMACK. "Why does it matter Takeru?" I stated solomly as he held his cheek looking completely shocked. My voice was deadly and low. "We aren't in the city anymore and you aren't Papa so stay out of it. I'm just as old as you are—"

"Then dammit ACT like it Arika!" he cut in. "What is going on with you? You've been so different since we moved here. Is something wrong? Do you hate me? What is it?!"

My eyes threatened to burst tears at any moment, but this was a fight and I was not going to cry. No. I wouldn't. "I want to go home," I whispered looking away from Takeru. "I don't like this. I'm not this kind of person who works outside with nasty animals all day. I'm not good at new things. I want to go home and take care of Papa and work in the bakery again making cakes for Miss Berris. I don't like this place."

Jiji who had been silent all the while sitting on my shoulder just about had a spastic attack. "WHAT?!" he shrieked. "Human! You cannot leave I forbid it!"

"Are you saying that… you're scared?" Takeru's voice was a lot gentler now.

I looked up my eyes starting to turn red around the edges as a tear leaked out. I was furious. "And when have I ever had an issue admitting my feelings Takeru? Isn't that you that you're confusing me with?"

"So that's all it is?" Takeru smiled weakly to himself. "Thank god. I thought it was me."

"Why would you think it was you?" I mumbed completely embarrassed that I was actually crying. Damn tears were betraying me. I never cried in front of Takeru. If I did that then he would mince his words and not say what he meant. He'd go soft. I wanted the truth not lies to make me happy again.

"I've been trying so hard to be friendly to people for you Arika. You were so upset when we got on the boat and I just wanted to make you happy…" he trailed off pulling me into a hug. "I'm sorry. I thought maybe I did something wrong and messed up. It's my fault we're here in the first place so I guess I really did do something wrong. I just want the old Arika back."

That's when it hit me. I realized what was going on in that moment. Takeru and I had truly switched places. I was no longer the responsible sister who took care of the brother who shut himself out from the rest of society. Our roles had reversed. I was slowly becoming the Takeru I had hated and Takeru was becoming me. Takeru was now the responsible, kind, gentle one. I pushed away from him now realizing that the person I was really mad at was myself. I practically flew up the stairs of Cresson and Rucola's home and into their daughter's room slamming the door behind me as quietly as I could out of respect. The bed was an open invitation and I ran to it hugging the traveling girl's pillows so hard I was surprised that feathers hadn't exploded out of them.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit," I whispered banging my face into the bed with each utterance. "I'm so stupid. Arika you idiot. Why are you acting like this?"

"You aren't going to leave are you human?" Jiji asked timidly near my ear. I shook my head but didn't raise it from where I was trying to suffocate myself with the pillows. I heard the little sprite release a breath of relief. "I think you're a wonderful person. You shouldn't be upset. I like you. Most everyone you've met likes you."

"I don't care if anyone likes me," I said. "I only want to like myself and right now… I hate myself."And I fell asleep thinking that my eyes swollen and irritated from crying.

* * *

The next day I had a session of a little game I liked to call "Avoid Takeru for as Long as Possible". With Jiji as my lookout I was invincible. No way would I be in Takeru's presence for long enough for him to bring up the issue from the day before. I tended to gardening with Taylor again that morning watering the plants and collecting ripe vegetables and fruits. Taylor was peppy as usual starting random conversation on how wonderful zucchini squash smelt, though I was couldn't say I agreed at all. Soon after Taylor drug me with him to another field full to the brim with grasses that reached well above my waist.

"Have you ever used a sickle before?" the optimistic man asked. I shook my head as visions of a grim reaper's scythe popped to mind. "Here," and I was handed a stubby staffed rusty curved cutting instrument. The thought about how dangerous this was did occur to me for a moment. Letting me have a dangerous, potentially fatally so, tool was not the best idea.

"Um," I held it out before me carefully hoping I didn't cut myself and have to get a tetanus shot. Looking at Taylor helplessly I realized he was laughing. He was covering his mouth and trying to hide it but doing a terrible job. I stuck out my bottom lip. "What are you laughing at?"

"It's so cute," he said between gasps for breath finally letting his laughter take hold. "You really are clueless! Aw, little one. It's adorable! Don't look like that, that face makes it worse."

I rolled my eyes and walked forward carefully with the sickle. "What do I do?" I asked trying to lessen my humiliation and just get this stupid job over with. "I'm not going to hurt myself am I?"

"Well, that is entirely up to you dear," Taylor smirked. "If you do it right how I instruct you, then you should be perfectly unscathed when you leave this field." He held his own sickle out in front of him to where the blade was directed away from his body. "Just swing it at this angle and you should get a good bunch every time. But it will probably take a little warming up to."

I copied him and made a little swing carefully jumping back from my own arm. Taylor laughed for a good thirty seconds again. I hadn't really managed to cut much of anything which disappointed me to say the least. "We may have a problem," Taylor chuckled rubbing the back of his head.

Next was another job that Taylor was trying to teach me. I was in hell. The feathers were all over and I held my nose as the bigger man urged me into the coop. I felt nauseous and scared to death. They all watched me with their beady eyes. Clucking every so often one would stir and make me flinch. I was tenser than I had been in a long time remembering one of the bad experiences I'd had when we were in elementary school and they had taken us to a petting zoo. The rooster had attacked me and left a good sized scar—that I still had mind you—on my stomach with that talon on the back of its leg. Evil monsters.

"We're going to collect the eggs and then we'll clean the whole place out." To my utter horror Taylor wasn't joking when he said this. "So let's get to work. And you'll need both hands so you need to let go of your nose."

Exasperated and completely discontented I followed orders eventually actually descending to truly being sick and having to excuse myself for a moment. And the chickens, while they didn't shred me to pieces, did end up leaving me with a small battle wound or two. One was actually from being pecked. Needless to say the coop was spotless—until one of them pooped in there which I'm sure would be soon enough. Nasty birds.

"Good job today," Taylor stated patting me on the hand after taking off his gloves thank goodness. I wouldn't want anything that touched that glove to come into contact with my head. Chickens… I shudder at the thought.

"Arika!" Takeru was waving at us from the farm house. I cringed and stopped walking. I wasn't mad at him, but how could I face him?

"I'm going to take a bath," I said quickly veering off toward the bath house.

"See you at dinner," Taylor said in his usual cheerful manner giving me a little wave. I sprinted off toward the bath at full speed in hope that Takeru wouldn't be able to make it there in time to corner me before I was stripped down and safely in the water. I didn't want to deal with him right now.

When I finally was submerged in a sea of ginger scented bubble bath I relaxed letting all the worry slide off. Jiji sat on the side of the tub dipping in his feet. I looked over at him. "What's wrong?" I asked. After all, he'd been uncharacteristically quiet all day also he wasn't pleading me for my shampoo… which surprised me. He'd fallen in love with it apparently.

"I'm tired," he stated.

"Did you sleep alright last night?" I was a little concerned. It seemed pretty well to me that we was tired now that I looked closer. I scooted over to him and began my study. His eyes were half-lidded with rings of darkening blue beneath them, and he had definitely not acted like himself. "You aren't sick are you?"

He shook his head. "That's absolutely impossible. Sprites are immune to any kind of disease or illness."

"Aw, but Jiji, you don't look too good." I countered putting two fingers across the span of his forehead. It was hard to tell really though because I didn't know what temperature harvest sprites normally were nor could I really tell with just two fingers if it was higher or lower than it should be whatever "should be" was. That was when my tiny companion just about collapsed into the bathtub. I let out a surprised "eep!" and caught him before he could drown. Laying him down a little way from the water I got out and wrapped a towel around me then hurried back over to him and dried him off. He was still in a little pair of black shorts so there was nothing to be covered, but I was really worried.

"Jiji!" I said beginning to feel panicked. "Jiji!" I shook him gently trying to wake him up. My heart began to pound. What if something was really wrong with him? I mean, something was wrong, but what if it was serious? I quickly threw my smelly clothes back on and yanked on my boots. Picking up the sprite carefully I cradled him in my arms wrapped in a fluffy towel. Then I sprinted out of the bath house and out toward the woods. The sun was setting, and I knew this probably wasn't the best idea, but what could I do? Take him to the clinic? Yeah right, like the doctor wouldn't just throw me into a mental ward.

Stumbling through the brush and not on a path I searched the woods for the enormous dried up tree. Where was it? Something large and dark caught my eye and I stared at it a moment attempting to make out what it was. Was it the tree? No, I couldn't have possibly made it there this quickly. What was that thing?

And then it moved.


	6. In Trouble

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon nor any of the characters.**_ Also I haven't played Tree of Tranquility so I'm kind of improvising after getting hyped up and reading game summaries so any errors… were kind of planned for. I'm addicted to Harvest Moon games but I can't afford a wii._

**~Author's Note… Again. :D~**

**Re: like red on a rose **_Like I said any mistakes were kind of planned for… (which is me playing off anything I do wrong.) I did however know that Roomi was older, though I wasn't sure how old exactly. It was at least to be assumed being that she IS a marriage candidate. She had to at least be sixteen for that to be possible. Arika just assumes that Roomi is a junior to her because of how she presents herself and the fact that Arika looks down on the girl she wants to make her seem as inferior as possible so she thinks of her as a young adolescent to make Roomi lower than herself. I didn't know about Taylor, but I just kind of thought he would be older since he ran his own seed shop. In all of the games that I've played the people that run shops are adults and I just didn't want to think of Anise as being in her late twenties… it kind of spoils my ideal of her. But thanks for the review!! I appreciate the critique! _

Arika's scream rang out so clearly I heard it easily from where I sat at the Souffle Farm dining table making conversation with Taylor. I never knew myself to move so quickly. Arika had been the athletic one after all, me I wasn't bad, but I wasn't an _athlete_ like she was. Regardless I shot from the table and out the back door much faster than Taylor who followed me. Her scream had been far too far away for her to be in the bath house but I checked there anyway. Her wet footprints still stained the polished wood floor and her clean set of clothes were untouched.

Fearing the worst I looked toward the woods. The sun no longer visible behind all of the trees and only a faint pink strip that faded to deep blue. I cursed and looked to Taylor conveying my thoughts. "The woods," I muttered. Taylor nodded no sign of a smile so I knew this wasn't a joke he and my sister were trying to pull. Oh how I wish it were.

Both of us took off toward the forest at full speed being as aware of our surroundings as we possibly could. Any noise could be Arika. Any movement could be her. I wanted my sister back in my arms or safe in bed. I didn't want her being eaten or ripped to shreds within our first week of moving out of dad's house and with the luck I'd had with her disappearing since we had moved… I didn't even want to imagine what could happen. The very inkling that she could be hurt made me tear through the brush faster searching feverishly for any sign of my twin.

This whole island was strange, it was like it tested us. Arika hadn't acted like herself for a while now, and neither had I. My innocent sister was acting very, very unlike herself. It was rather hard to ignore her eyes settling on something that wasn't there at all, and how she spoke to whatever she thought she saw when she thought I wasn't looking. I wasn't blind. We had been together since birth, things like that didn't go unnoticed. Also the Arika I knew was brave. She didn't run away from problems she solved them. She was motherly, kind, and gentle. Now she was acting childish, and stubborn. Did she not like this place_ that_ much? It had grown on me. I hadn't preferred work, but for some reason I felt happier once I was doing something productive. Arika had been a wonderful baker, and artist. I knew farm work wasn't her thing but it isn't like her to be like _this_. What was going on? And why did trying to figure that out bother her? What was she scared of?

"Have you found her?!" I heard someone yell from a distance off. It sounded like Chihaya. I guess Rucola had noticed us leave and called in for reinforcements. Sure enough his strawberry blonde head popped out from behind a thicket as he caught up to me. Apparently his sense of seeking was better than mine since it was pitch black by this point and he'd found me. His face worried he was carrying a flashlight. I shook my head at him. "There's a search party out looking for her," he stated shining the beam of light around. "Tao, his uncle, the mayor and his son, Oso, the carpenters…"

"Thank you," I muttered my eyes lingering only for a moment of grateful solace on his face before wandering around in search again. This was too much like a fairy tale gone wrong. The frail girl who gets lost in the woods, eaten by a monster. 'Takeru you idiot, stop it!' I scolded myself.

"A-R-I-K-A!" Chihaya called cupping his mouth. "IF YOU CAN HEAR ME CALL BACK!"

My mouth twitched and I forced myself to hold off crying in despair. I couldn't give up yet. I had to find her. No. I would find her. I would have my sister back.

* * *

I lay cradling the tiny bundle of a sprite to my chest on the ground completely breathless. Whatever that had been it had knocked me down and knocked me out. I tightened my grip slightly as I came further into consciousness just to make sure he was still there. The reason I was here, Jiji, he was. He was still in my arms. I tried my hardest to regain control of my lungs, though it burned. Slowly I was able to breathe evenly. That's when the sounds started to come back, and the sight… well what little I could get being how dark it was.

"ARIKA!"

"MISS YUMEI!"

"ARIKA!! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

They were looking for me? Who was looking for me? Why were there so many voices? What was going on? I shook my head as I sat up shakily. I had more important things to worry about. I checked Jiji over with my eyes. His shallow breathing made my heart skip and he was paler. I was off again searching for the enormous tree. Why had it been so easy to find before?

I turned to my left and found the same clearing from another angle. The gigantic tree stretching it's dead branches high above in such thick clusters it looked like a cave. I made my way in and approached the foot of the relic expecting to see the other two sprites on the ground as though they had dropped like flies, but they were nowhere to be seen. The air around me was so still it was making me feel deprived of oxygen. I knelt down in front of the tree not knowing what else to do and held Jiji in my hands carefully. His head bobbed limply back against my fingertips and the feeling of his rabbit-like green hair only made my dread double. "Please be okay." I whispered to him. "Please, please, please, please…"

"What do I do?" I asked no one in particular in hopes for some form of miraculous guidance.

"You can see them too?"

My eyes shot open wider than they had in a while and I flung my head around so quickly I could have easily gotten whiplash. The mayor's arrogant son stood not five feet away watching me—well not me, but what I held. "What do I do?!" I asked him hysterically tears threatening to burst through.

"Well, I can't still see them. Not now, though I used to see them when I was little." He spoke as if he hadn't heard me at all and a distant look was etched on his face his eyes blank. Now those same eyes moved to my face. "You can't do anything. He's going to die."

I couldn't bring myself to yell at him though I wanted to. It wasn't his fault Jiji was sick. I didn't know whose fault it was, but I couldn't bring myself to even scream out of my inner torment. Only could I sit silently and let the tears fall freely. I hugged the tiny creature to my chest only now realizing how much he'd actually grown on me. As many times as I had wanted to smack him around for multiple reasons, I didn't realize I actually cared this much. The boy had turned his back on me now, though he hadn't left his spot. I doubted he was enjoying the scene. I wondered why he didn't just leave. I wished he would.

"Arika," I heard a small voice say. "You're hurting me."

Quickly I pulled back my arms and examined the bundle. Jiji's eyes were open looking up at me bleakly, but they were there. "Jiji?" I dared to breathe.

"Why are you crying?" he asked. Oh, it was so precious I couldn't help it when my smile erupted like some untamed force and I hugged him again though as gently as I could. He was okay. He was okay!

"What happened to you?" I asked holding him out in front of me again as he pried his arms free from the towel around him. "Why did you faint like that? You scared me." I could see out of the corner of my eye the platinum blonde-haired boy, Gil, staring at us in disbelief, his mouth gaping like a fish.

"I fainted?" he cocked his little head to the side before seeming to remember something. "Oh! I saw the Harvest Goddess and she told me to relay a message to you. She said that you need to find yourself or something like that and that—" Then as though it struck him in the face his color came back into his face and he turned a deep shade of pink. "Wh-what are you doing?" He stared at my hands that surrounded his waist only his little sprite shorts covering him.

"I was trying to take a bath and you collapsed. Don't look at me like that," I scolded as he squirmed out of my grip and floated a little above my hands.

"What is his problem?" Jiji asked taking notice of Gil for the first time.

I looked over at him and he had composed himself and now stood with his arms crossed over his chest and shot me a good sizing up glance when I gave him my attention. "Well, he did say you were going to die, but you didn't." I answered before standing up from my crouch. "How do you know about the Harvest Sprites?" I asked.

"I told you already. I could see them when I was a kid." His tone once again put him in air of _"it's none of your business, but if you must know…"_which perturbed me to no end along with his choice of dress.

I rolled my eyes and leaned down to pick up the towel that I had carried Jiji out in. "You are really full of it aren't you?" Gil's expression went from arrogant to angry in record time. I shook my head in disbelief and sighed.

"ARIKA PLEASE ANSWER ME!!" This time I recognized the voice and it was closer. Takeru was calling me.

"TAKERU!" I yelled back in the direction I thought it had come from.

Faster than I had expected I was tackled from the side in a bone crushing embrace. My feet didn't even touch the ground as Takeru held me to him. "Oh thank Kami-sama…" I heard him whisper holding me tighter so that I could feel my ribs threatening to bruise under the strain.

"Takeru," I wheezed. "Too tight."

"Oh you should be happy right now, because when we get back to the house I won't feel like hugging you anymore," my twin mumbled in reply. I knew exactly what he meant too. He was going to put me under house arrest and chain me in a cage so I couldn't run off again. That was exactly what he would do.

"Sorry, I was just being stupid," I muttered giving in because I knew the truth would make my dearest brother more angry with me than just admitting I had done something wrong regardless of whether it was entirely true or not.

"You were," he agreed. Then he inhaled a large breath and turned his mouth away from my ear. "I FOUND HER!" he yelled out to whoever else was searching for me. "What were you doing watching her here without saying a word?" he growled looking over at Gil who stood near the edge of the clearing along the tree line still staring at me as though trying to figure something out.

He snapped out of this trance though when Takeru's voice got his attention. "Excuse me," he muttered walking back into the dark and leaving us alone in the clearing, though we weren't alone for long.

"Arika! You're coming with me!" a certain curly haired man said sternly as he waltzed into the clearing waving a flashlight in his hand. "You don't mind if I borrow her for a moment do you Takeru?"

I cursed under my breath. Just great. I didn't want to deal with the town jerk right now. But to my displeasure Takeru turned me over into his custody. Why did my own twin betray me?


	7. Oh, How I Hate Him

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon nor any of the characters.**_ Also I haven't played Tree of Tranquility so I'm kind of improvising after getting hyped up and reading game summaries so any errors… were kind of planned for. I'm addicted to Harvest Moon games but I can't afford a wii._

I stumbled into the Kirsch in almost falling down in my attempts to get away from Chihaya who had just recently released his grip on my arm. "What the hell?" I snapped glaring at him from my position of catching myself on a table. He only raised his eyebrow at me as if to as "what could I have possibly done wrong?" in a way that showed he knew exactly what he had done.

"You don't want to work on a farm. Okay then," the strawberry blonde stated walking back toward the kitchen and beckoning with his hand for me to follow. "Then you can work here part time."

I blinked stopping at the door and staring at him with a grimace. "You brought me all the way over here for that?" No answer. "Okay, I'm going then." I turned to leave but was caught by a firm grip on my wrist. When I turned back the deadpan serious expression he held almost scared me.

"No you aren't. Takeru and I discussed this and he agrees that you working the night shift with me is best. You won't get into trouble that way." Chihaya frowned then. "Though you'll probably find some way to cause problems anyway. You're a decent cook so you'll be helping me, but you have to follow orders and work hard. Do you understand?"

"Excuse me?" I asked my eyes widening. Follow orders? From him? The runner-up for Jerk of the Century award only beaten by Gil. I didn't think so. And why the sudden change in character?

"Back-talking me isn't going to save you. You don't have a choice so I would slap a cooperative mood in place before this gets difficult." My mouth fell open. What?! WHAT?! My expression composed itself more fittingly into a scowl. My brows drew downwards my eyes narrowed and the corners of my mouth threatening to plunge into a nasty sneer but I held it back. "You look ugly when you do that. Now I want you to dice some onions let them simmer a good fifteen minutes. Then I suggest in that time that you wait you work really hard on caramelizing some sugar for the desserts which you are in charge of. If you're wondering what desserts I'm referring to, surprise me. So long as it includes caramelized sugar because we have an excess of the stuff and we don't have that much room."

"I am going to skin Takeru alive for this stunt, and I may as well throw a pot of boiling water on you while I'm at it," I growled tearing my hand from him.

"Stop pouting, it's eight forty already and customers will arrive for dinner and late meals any time." With that Lucifer, disguised as a curly headed waiter, yanked me back into the fiery pits of hell and made me his slave. Jiji had returned from the bath after recollecting his clothing and had fallen for Chihaya in some un-romantic way. Every order the young man threw at me Jiji mimicked with a cynical tone. I hate the world right now.

* * *

I trudged back to the Souffle farm completely exhausted. It was three in the morning. Damn them for this. Sneaking as quietly as I could into the house I finally made it to their daughter's bedroom to find it… occupied? Someone lay in the bed breathing softly. I frowned. Where would I sleep? I know it was a rude question, but no one had informed me that the daughter would come back tonight. I sighed and shut her door as quietly as possible. Then I looked down to see that also my bag had been placed in the hall. A lump formed in my throat. Jiji was sleeping soundly in my bag as usual. He'd knocked out and almost fallen into a bowl of flour had I not caught him. Lucky little guy had had me worried to tears not all that long ago and now I was mad at him again.

I picked up my suitcase and carried it down the hallway, down the stairs and out the backdoor. I knew somewhere that would at least be warm because if I weren't so mad at Takeru right now I would have just found his room and crawled into bed with him, but I was mad and I was stubborn. Setting my bag just inside the barn door I ignored the cow's stall which already smelled awful and looked for the stall that had the horse with the white mane and grey speckles all over. When I found him I didn't bother opening the gate, that was too noisy. I just slipped through the bars that were a little higher up and landed on the hay. The horse wasn't asleep which didn't surprise me too much, but it was lying down. I smiled and held my hand out to him letting him see if he remembered me. Of all the horses I had bathed the other day, this one was the only one that was as friendly as he had been. He snorted through his nose in a way that made me think he was saying "just find a spot and go to sleep stupid."

Carefully leaning against him I didn't say anything because I didn't need to. Soon I was out like a light and the last thing I thought about—with a smirk at that—was that they would have lots of fun trying to find me in the morning.

When I woke up I felt something soft and then something wet on me. Disgusted my eyes flew open to see it was only the grey horse from the night before nudging me with his nose. He was standing up while I was still laying on the hay. I struggled to sit up and cursed myself for doing this. I was sore all over… and I smelled like animal.

"Well good morning little one," I heard and looked up to see Taylor peaking through the bars with a grin. "Did you sleep well with Tachi here? He's normally rather grumpy."

I rubbed my eye and glared at him with the other. "Pestering me this early after yesterday is probably not the most intelligent move I've seen anyone make. What time is it?" I grumbled.

"I see, so the two of you are the same." He paused and then he opened the door to the stall. "Right now it's probably about ten twenty or so…"

"_Yay_," I muttered.

"So how did you get in here with him and him not trample you to death?" Taylor asked as the horse made an obvious effort to back away from him. I stared at "Tachi" in thought. I didn't know I was special. He didn't back away from me. So I shrugged. Taylor laughed as he put fodder into a little bin the corner. "I guess he's a one person horse then. He's pretty timid most of the time but he's charged people before and he has reared up like he planned to do something bad. I've never given him a chance though."

I looked at the horse that was now changing the weight in his feet back and forth, back and forth. I could tell he was thinking rather fondly of darting out the door so guess what I did. I grabbed a handful of his mane and pulled myself up as best as I could onto his back. Giving him a little nudge with my foot was all he needed. He bolted through the door so quick it surprised me. I smiled and turned my head just before we were out of the barn. "I'll bring him back!" I yelled.

Taylor appeared in the doorway not long after scratching his head. It made me wonder if anyone had been able to ride this guy before. To be honest I had no idea how to ride a horse. All that I knew was hold on for dear life at this point. Not long after we had started bounding across the small grassy lot in front of the barn we were on a road and mind you I wasn't steering this maniac at all. How could I? I didn't know how to drive a horse. I now wondered if I would be able to hold to my promise of bringing him back to the barn… "Genki desu ne, Ta~chi~san?!"I asked singing his name. I knew he had to feel a lot better than being cramped up in that stall all day long.

"Ugh, what are you doing human?" I heard and looked down to my purse where Jiji was peeking out with wide eyes. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HUMAN?" he repeated holding onto the bag as best he could. I snickered.

"I'm being nice." I stated.

"Why are we on a horse?!" the little sprite yelled.

"Because…" I really couldn't think of a good excuse. I couldn't say I'd wanted to do this really because I had just done it without really wanting to or not wanting to so there went that excuse. "We just are," I concluded.

Then a determined expression came across his face. "Well while we're on this horse we need to collect ingredients. Tell this horse to go to the nearest apple tree."

"Apples?" I questioned and the speed at which Tachi was loping sped into a full on gallop. I screamed and threw my arms around his muscular neck. Apparently this horse knew what an apple was. He was probably fond of them too. Actually… I was fairly positive by this point of being bounced around recklessly on his back even with my attempts to stay attached that he adored the fruit.

We flew by someone near a building and I didn't really get a good look at them, but that didn't mean I didn't hear them. "What's the hurry?!" they shouted. I turned my head to see a taller guy with dark hair peeking out from beneath a bandana and what looked like an axe slung over his shoulder staring after us.

I shook my head and turned back to face forward in case we were headed toward anything perilous. Along the way I noticed what looked to be a mine shaft… well that's a little creepy. I wondered if anyone had been killed because it collapsed. I had always heard awful stories about mines. "Is there really an apple tree this far out?" I questioned and Tachi snorted as if telling me off for wondering about his sense of direction. I laughed. "I get it. I get it."

Sure enough only a moment later we came upon a tree that brandished apples on its branches. It wasn't terribly big, but the fruits were ripe and I secretly wondered how that was possible being that apples were a summer fruit not fall—not to mention that it was getting rather late in the fall and very close to winter's start. This whole island was just… weird, from its name to everything that seemed to happen. The people were strange, the animals, the fact that I had found out about Jiji was enough to make me wonder how I hadn't lost my mind yet. Hell, this place had me and Takeru weird too. It was cursed. Yep, that's what I decided in the moment. This place was cursed so that everything that it had any contact with was made topsy-turvy and just downright wrong.

I slipped off of Tachi once he came to a stop at the foot of said tree. Reaching up tenetively I plucked a crimson fruit off of a branch and tossed it in my hand noticing it wasn't as heavy as it looked, at all. I handed it to Tachi who left drool all over my hand when he took it. Disgusted I wiped my hand as best as I could on the tree's bark not wanting to wipe horse spit on my clothes even if they were dirty from having been worn for FAR too long. Then I plucked another apple from the tree and handed it down to Jiji who stuffed it into my purse with him. That's when I just gave up. What the hell, I would pick a few more. Who knows maybe I could make an apple pie today… or better yet! I was going to prove to that jerk Chihaya that I was a better cook than him. Stretching my shirt so that I could carry apples in it like a pouch I filled it up, somehow managed to get back up on Tachi without falling off or dropping any of my new fruits, and then we headed off—at a much slower speed—back toward the Souffle farm so I could get cleaned up.

As we passed back by the same tall bandana wearing guy from before I thought he was going to run out in front of Tachi to make us stop. "Hey!" he called with a grin hopping the fence after leaving the enormous axe wedged in a decent sized stump. "Hey!" He stopped beside Tachi who had flicked his ears back in annoyance.

"…Hey?" I replied looking down at him from the rather large horse's back. He couldn't have been older than myself I noted looking at his face and surprisingly bright amber eyes. His grin grew a little wider and he extended a lean arm toward me. I stared at it for a minute before catching on that he wanted me to shake it. I did so hesitantly.

"So you must be one of the new farmers I heard about. That was some serious riding you were doing earlier. I'm Luke. I work in carpentry here on the island with my dad and a friend Poen. Of course he's off doing business the next town over today or he'd be here to meet you too." Then he paused and I was waiting for him to take a breath seeing as he had just spit all that out in a steady flow without breaks. He seemed to be observing me. "Y'don't seem like the type to do farm work to me. I've never seen anyone so tiny… well besides Roomi, but she's just as prissy as she looks."

"Honestly," I sighed. "I don't want to be here. I'd rather be back at my old job but this is good for my brother so I'll deal."

"Well, we should be done with you guys' house tomorrow." Luke still hadn't let go of my hand and it was getting sweaty and gross.

"That's great, but uh—" I looked down at our hands. He followed my gaze and immediately recoiled.

"Jeeze, I'm sorry," he said genuinely. "I kind of forgot about it." Luke smiled sheepishly. "So how are you liking Waffle Town? It's pretty boring eh?"

"At times," I answered in all honesty. Tachi pawed the ground getting impatient. "Maybe I can come by again later… before work or something. I really need to take a bath."

The pink that formed in Luke's cheeks was something I decided to ignore. "Uh—yeah, sure. That's no problem. What time will that be?"

I looped my fingers into Tachi's snow mane again. "Maybe three or four?" I offered. "That way we can finish talking. I really want to hear about the house. This guy wants to get back."I motioned to Tachi.

"I should still be out here then actually so it shouldn't be a problem. I've got double work since Poen's not here." He shrugged and threw his thumb back over his shoulder toward a rather large tree that was laying in the field he had just been in. "I've got plenty of time to wait."

"Okay. See you then," I stated and before either of us could say anything else Tachi took off. I squeaked at the sudden movement and clutched tighter to the edge of my shirt which held the apples. Behind me I could hear Luke laughing rather jovially and were I not totally occupied with not dropping the fruit and trying not to fall off I would have turned around to stick out my tongue. I was happy though. I had met a genuinely nice guy, not my type at all, but a nice guy none the less. I could imagine that he was the loud type though just from his rather cheerful demeanor even making a horse stop so he could talk to someone. He more amused me than annoyed me.

Back at the Souffle farm I pulled a little larger of a bag from my suitcase and wrapped the apples in paper towels setting them inside while I grabbed a fresh set of clothes and headed to the bath. I had given up on skirts for now—mainly because I had run out of them—and pulled out a pair of baggy cargo pants some roughed up grey tennis shoes and a navy turtle neck. When I was done with my bath which made me feel so much better self-esteem wise, I took a hair band and attempted to pull my hair up. Though I hadn't been in an irritated mood before, I was now. Damn hair was too short. I let out my breath slowly to try and calm down and just left the hair tie on my wrist until I wanted to drive myself crazy again.

Taking my dirty clothes and putting them into the plastic bag in my suitcase with the others I grabbed my purse and my bag attaching my purse to my waist as usual. Jiji sat on my shoulder smelling of mint and ginger and I had the feeling he felt a lot better too. "So, are you still going to talk to that boy Arika?" he asked quietly.

I nodded. "Yep."

"What about the rainbow?"

"What about it?" I retorted heading out of the barn door since all my things were still in there. "I'll get it done. Don't worry."

Jiji was quiet. "I never got to tell you the other night, but the Harvest Goddess told me to tell you something else." I waited. "She said that… that you had the fate of the island resting on you and that if you failed it would be catastrophic."

"And you omitted that part why?" I grumbled now walking on the path that Tachi had taken earlier that day. "It seems kind of important."

"I know, but it's a little hard to remember that I was supposed to tell you that when you've got me half naked," the sprite spat defensively.

I shook my head and grinned. "Pervert. Why would I ever be interested in you that way?" In the end just before we reached the field where my new to-be-friend was chopping away Jiji and I laughed for a long time. When I heard the chops I stopped laughing and waved. "HEY!" I said.

The young craftsman looked up and a grin that put the sun to shame spread out over his face. "Hey yourself!"


	8. Guy, Girl, Guy, Girl, Tranny

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon nor any of the characters.**_ Also I haven't played Tree of Tranquility so I'm kind of improvising after getting hyped up and reading game summaries so any errors… were kind of planned for. I'm addicted to Harvest Moon games but I can't afford a wii._

I sat swinging my legs absentmindedly on the railing of the fence as I watched the axe that Luke was swinging come down on the helpless tree again. He'd pretty well demolished most of it before I had gotten there and was now working on the thicker lower part of the trunk.

"I hope—thwack!—you don't mind," Luke spoke pacing himself so that I didn't miss words because of his chopping. "But—thwack!—we could only fit one bed in—wham!—you guys' house for now."

I shook my head. "It's not a problem at all. Actually while we stayed at the inn I can't really recall a night that Takeru slept in the other bed anyway."

The boy set the axe down for a moment and wiped his brow. "Well, you can always save up and upgrade later. We can add another bed, hell we can add another bedroom if you want. My dad knows more about the specifics though. If you're interested just stop by and talk to him." He came to lean on the fence beside me still managing to be taller than I was even though the fence was fairly tall. "Where do you work?"

"As of last night I was forced into slave labor under Chihaya," I muttered feeling annoyed at the very thought of seeing that guy's face today.

Luke slapped me on the back nearly knocking me off the fence. "Well, at least you don't have to work with His Grumpiness at Town Hall. Elli is okay, but Gil is as pissy as a hormonal girl. No offense."

I coughed. "Yeah, well. Gil does prance around like he has something shoved pretty far up there. I guess you're right. It could definitely be worse." It was nice here out in this field, but then maybe that was because I felt like a new woman after having gotten a decent bath. "How many other people have I not met in this town?" I questioned looking over at Luke.

"Hm, well you've haven't met the blacksmithing family, the goldsmith, or the family that runs the Brownie Ranch from what it sounds like. Have you been to the bar yet?"

I wrinkled my nose in disgust. "Alcohol? Really Luke? Really?"

He held up his hands defensively. "Hey, they didn't put on an age limit. You should stop by there sometime. Kathy would get a kick out of it. You're brother is the talk of all the girls around here. Apparently he's a looker or something."

"Or something," I muttered crossing my arms. "The little girl at the tailor's wouldn't leave me alone about it."

Luke stared at me a moment. "Roomi?" he asked.

"I guess."

"She's our age," he stated. "Well, technically she's a year younger but still."

"That brat?" I stared at him in disbelief. My hands balled into fists. "If she so much as goes near Takeru I'll rip her limbs off and disembowel her."

The carpenter laughed. "Easy there killer. You're brother's probably said the same thing about a few guys already. At least I would imagine that's how it is considering you're kind of a topic of discussion too. You guys are twins right?"

I nodded staring at him wondering if he meant that I was a topic the same way my brother was. I doubted it. "Takeru and I are supposed to be identical twins, but we turned out a little off considering he's a good head taller than me and the subject of gender."

"Well, just so you know," Luke leaned closer with his hand up to his mouth as though he were going to tell me a secret. "I'm pretty sure if you talked to Tao he would be more than happy to take you fishing with him."

I frowned. Tao. Wasn't that the guy who… "Oh." I felt my face fall into discontent. "No thanks, I'll pass on that one. No way I would go out with a pervert like that."

Luke pulled back and studied me curiously. "Wha'd he do?"

My eyes flicked to the dark haired boy. "Molested me and stole my money."

The bandanna wearer's eyes widened. "That's a new one. I've never heard about him molesting someone before."

"All I wanted to do was get a fishing pole. He didn't have to insist to teach me how to fish or take me to my brother. Besides Chihaya tried to do the same thing and it only ended up with both of us drenched in river water having to sit in front of a stove in the kitchen at the inn." I smirked remembering.

"You fell in the river?"

I nodded.

"And Chihaya?"

"Yep."

"BWHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!" Luke chortled holding his nonexistent gut as he leaned on the wooden fence for support. "Betcha he looked like a drowned rat!"

I raised an eyebrow. "Smelled like one too."

Then he stopped laughing suddenly. "Wait. But you sound like you hate Chihaya's guts."

"I do."

Those ember eyes bore into me for a moment. "Why do you spend so much time with him."

I gawked. "It's unintended obviously. I don't want to spend time with him at all, but he and Takeru keep finding ways of torturing me. Maybe one day I'll just snap and do something terrible to that jerk. Why do you think I would want to be around someone so fake the only time they're polite?"

"He's not bad looking."

I glowered. "So neither is Gil and I don't see women falling all over themselves to get with him. Just because Chihaya is the only guy in this town who actually takes care of his hair it doesn't mean I'm going to fall for him. Might steal his conditioner though."

"Hey! I take care of my hair!" he defended ripping off his bandanna. I studied the mop not very interested.

"What do you use?" I inquired.

"Same stuff I clean everything else with."

I slapped a hand over my face. "That's just gross. Get some shampoo. You can't use normal soap on your hair. It's not good for it."

Luke frowned. "You sound like Juli."

"LUKE!" someone belted. I jerked my head up to see a man who looked like my carpenter friend but was quite a bit burlier leaning his head out a window of the building closest to here that Luke explained he lived and worked in. "STOP CHATTING AND GET TO CHOPPING!"

"Yes sir," Luke stated making his way back over and taking the axe to toppled tree again.

"Speaking of Juli," I started. "He's bearable. Why do you sound like you don't like him?"

"He's a tranny," Luke sneered letting another blow hit the wood. I gasped and stared at the boy I had just been thinking this whole time was a nice guy.

"Actually, he's dressed in men's clothing he just has good tastes." I couldn't believe someone would insult that guy one anything other than ego but that's not what Luke was talking about. Juli's inflated self-image was not the topic of discussion, it was his appearance which had happened to be my favorite thing about him. Like Chihaya and his hair, I found the feminine characteristics more hygienic and refreshing which further pointed to why Luke wasn't my type. Too outdoorsy, too active, and way too much testosterone. "That style is mainstream where Takeru and I came from."

"Well, we live in a small town and here we just like to know easily what gender someone is. Guy, girl, guy, girl, guy, girl, tranny.—What's that?—It's aaaa… hm, either a girly looking guy or a girl who slightly resembles a guy."

Despite how much I was thoroughly offended I couldn't help but snicker a little. Not that what he was talking about was something to laugh at, but how he had said it. "Well if I must complain about any flaw in his character I would say it's that ego," I told him.

"Why what did he do?" Luke asked taking another hack at the wood.

I blushed remembering the incident. I had almost hit the ground, he'd caught me and then kept me in that same position for much longer than necessary. "Nothing important," I replied hoping he would drop it. Luke eyed me suspiciously for a moment before seeming to disregard the comment and resume his work. Then faintly I could hear the bells from the clock over town hall. I jumped slightly. It was six already? "Shoot."

"You going to work?" the carpenter asked.

"Yep," I said turning myself around on the fence and slipping off of it. "I'll see you later… if I don't kill Chihaya and have to go to jail."

He laughed. "Good luck."

I ran down the road from there. The town wasn't as far from this place as the Souffle Farm was so I wasn't too worried about being late. Quicker than I'd thought I was coming through the Kirsh Inn's door with my apples and Jiji.

"Oh good. You made it a little early," Chihaya stated poking his head out the door. I couldn't see what he was doing though. "I have an apron for you today." I went back to the kitchen and pulled the bag's strap over my head setting it on a clear cutting block and taking out one apple to show to my "boss". He stared at it a moment impassively before grabbing my wrist and biting into it while it was still in my hand. I cringed slightly. Ew. "Bringing me presents is not going to lighten your situation," he stated firmly.

"I didn't bring them for you idiot," I growled now mad that he had ruined a perfectly good apple. "I was going to cook with them."

He seemed surprised. "Then get to it." I could hear a twinge of curiosity in his voice. Was he seriously anticipating that I cook with fruits? I huffed and set the red fruit out on the counter shoving the one he had bitten into his hands with an irritated aura. I was short one apple now so I would have to settle for an apple pie.

"You can go ahead and finish off the one you destroyed," I muttered beginning to wash them off one by one.

He frowned. "You can use the half I didn't bite off of."

"No, I can't." I didn't look at him. "I only want whole apples unless a recipe calls for halves and this one doesn't. If you want to know the truth I get slightly OCD about cooking so I would quit while you're not on my list." I could have sworn he snickered. Jerk.

Footsteps could be heard just outside of the kitchen, but I didn't look up from my task of now cutting the apples. "Chihaya-sempai?" I heard and knew immediately who it was. "Mom told me to ask if you had an extra spatula she could borrow for dinner. Oh—hi Arika! What are you doing here?"

I smiled at her. "Hey. I'm just planning the death of the guy who wears clips in his hair." The knife in my hand glinted.

"Oh get over it," Chihaya grumbled. "Just because we are making you work…"

"You're working here?" Mai asked.

"Well, it's not on purpose," I grunted. "Why would I want to work with someone who RUINS MY INGREDIENTS BEFORE I CAN USE THEM!" I could practically feel him roll his eyes. "If I could I'd trade for the day shift with you. Actually if you want you can trade jobs with me!" I beamed suddenly proud of my idea. It would definitely work. Mai liked Chihaya and this way she could spend more time with him.

"Impossible Miss Pissy-Pants," the boy intervened. "I have to work with someone who can actually cook edible food."

My mouth fell open. I knew full well that had been a direct hit to poor Mai. I glanced at her and she was staring at her shoes. "Honey, I'm sure your cooking is fine," I reassured.

Chihaya laughed and I was about ready to smack him. "Go ahead and delude her. She'll never get better unless she knows how terrible her skills are."

"She'll never get better if all she gets is put down!" I stated slamming the knife down on the countertop and rounding on him. "When I learned to cook, even when it was terrible, my dad ate it like it was the best food in the world and because of positive reassurance I got better. If you got a hard time learning then it sucks for you, but you don't have to be so harsh on her!" He stared at me indifferently for a moment before looking sideways and handing Mai a spatula. The girl then quietly backed out of the room seeming uncomfortable from the tension.

"You're an ass," I seethed turning back toward my work and continuing. He didn't say anything.

"Arika-chan!" I had just put the pie into the oven while working on other dishes when he pranced up to the window and leaned on the edge of it reaching through and grabbing a lock of my hair.

"Juli," I stated acknowledging him. He smirked.

"When did you start working here honey?" he asked dropping my hair and patting my cheek. I continued to mix the pink fruit salad someone had ordered.

Still stirring. "Yesterday."

"Oh, I see. Chihaya is trying to keep the new girl all to himself hm. That's too bad. It would be absolutely wonderful if you could come with me to get a drink." Juli smiled when I looked up.

"I don't drink."

His face faltered. "Well, there went that plan. Poor little fish boy will be heartbroken." Was he really trying to be a matchmaker? I frowned and put the contents I'd been stirring on a plate and set it up on the ledge so Chihaya could serve it to the customer.

"I'm not interested," I told him.

Juli feigned shock and covered his mouth after eliciting a small gasp. "Oh my, and what kind of man _are_ you interested in?"

"Do you honestly expect me to start the gossip fire?" I smiled up at him. I knew if I answered that he would surely enough find someone in the village who matched the take in some way and spread it all around that we had a "thing" for each other. "None of the guys around here." I knew the comment wouldn't bother him. If he wanted me to like him he would just convince himself that I was lying. Most likely though… he had eyes for someone else. Someone like Juli didn't just fall for a girl because she was new and different.

"Someone back home then?" he pressed leaning in a little further.

"Nope."

"Have you ever even had a boyfriend?" He seemed completely curious and I was about to make him squeal like a little girl because I knew he wanted me to say no.

"Never."

I heard a slight choking noise behind me and turned to see Chihaya gripping the counter and going into a coughing fit. I looked back a Juli who shrugged before going over and pounding on the curly headed waiter's back. "Why don't you go outside? It's not good to do that around the food," I offered.

I watched as he left the kitchen out the back and shook my head when I looked at Juli again he had a grin spread across his face. Uh oh… "What's this?" Juli inquired. "An interesting development to say the least."

"I hate the guy's guts Juli," I stated now taking over Chihaya's cooking as well.

"I believe _you_, but I believe he doesn't feel that way. Looks like Tao will have some competition." He snickered. I rolled my eyes.

"You're delusional. That coughing was coincidence." I shook the beverage someone had ordered mixing the alcoholic contents with the other flavors.

"Well, no matter how much you deny it love, I think you're wrong," he sang.

I slammed the drink down on the ledge just beside Juli and the man jumped. "You ordered this?"

"Why thank you lovey!" He replied. He took the martini from me pleasantly. "I'll inform Tao on this new 'coincidence' so he will be ready to fight for you darling." Then he sighed. "Love is so beautiful."

"I think you watch too many dramas," I replied continuing with preparing food as Chihaya re-entered the kitchen. I handed the boy a full plate pointing to the customer and he was off to deliver it. "Besides, that's just infatuation, not love."

"Well, I think this is going to be rather interesting," Juli said taking a sip of the purple smelly drink. I could easily smell the alcohol. "All because you are interesting. Caio! I must return to my table."

"Bye Juli."

I went back to work pulling out some oranges from a bowl on a shelf and running it over a fine cheese grater. My so-called boss waltzed back into the kitchen and right to my side his eyes on the orange in my hand. "What are you using that for?" he asked.

I looked up at him—being that he was about my brother's height, perhaps taller—and realized that he was very uncomfortably for me situated in my space bubble. "It's orange zest," I said quietly leaning away from him. "For the chicken…"

"Really?" He frowned and watched as I started grating it again and then set it down. "I have never seen that done before."

"Well if I have any left over I'll let you try it then."

"You cooked a lot for your family didn't you?" he started moving back to making drinks as he was supposed to be doing. I nodded and stuck the said dish onto the plates in the right amount setting some sage at the center as I had seen at various restaurants that I'd visited. Then I grabbed a fork, shanked a piece of chicken, and handed it to Chihaya. He took it without hesitation though when I glanced at him I was a little surprised to see the barely visible blush. It was just chicken, what was the big deal? He took a bite and his eyes widened a little.

"Is it worthy of our customers?" I asked sarcastically knowing full well it was perfectly fine.

"What else can you make with oranges?" he questioned after swallowing his bite. Ah, so it wasn't the chicken. I made a mental note to tell Mai to make this guy an orange spice cake.

I shrugged. "I just learned to do a few things from watching TV is all. Takeru doesn't really like citrus so I'm a lot better with berries and other fruits." I took a spoon then and peeled the orange's skin off and handed it to him. "I'm a lot better at just making specialty cakes though since that was my job. Meals aren't my strong suit."

"That's what your brother told me." So Takeru had been blabbing about me huh? Oh yay.

I handed Chihaya the two chicken plates and he took them out. He was back quickly enough. "I have a personal question." He "hmphed" and I continued. "Would you ever consider Mai? As a possible love interest I mean."

"Would you ever consider Luke?" he retorted.

"Not for more than a friend."

"And Mai is merely a little sister to me if even that," he explained flipping an omelet in a pan. "She's too moody and clingy. She still has a long way to go in becoming a mature woman. She still acts like a lovesick schoolgirl."

Well I guess that made sense. "She really does like you," I told him. "She's trying really hard and it's kind of like a personal blow to watch you put her down like you did earlier. I was like that once upon a time too. Most girls go through a phase like that so we can pretty easily sympathize with each other."

Chihaya's hand landed on my shoulder and he spun me to face him looking dead serious as he stared at me directly in the eye. Yet again he was way too far past the boundary of my personal space bubble. His face was at an intimate distance, though I'm sure he didn't realize it. "Mai has been like this since we were little kids." His voice was annoyed. "It's not a phase."

"…Oh." I stated kind of surprised that he seemed so upset over it. I guess it could get a little tiresome after a while.

"Here's the spa—tula…" Wasn't this the perfect moment for Mai to come back. I cursed silently. I couldn't imagine how this looked to her. Chihaya absentmindedly took the tool from her and tossed it with a clang into the metal sink behind him one hand still encircling my shoulder awkwardly. Poor thing. I looked over at her trying my hardest to put a little more distance between the curly-headed man and me. She was frowning. Hm, I hadn't expected her to be the hostile type, but I saw it coming. "I thought you were my friend Arika." Her voice was one that made me think that were we not before witnesses she would gleefully rip my head off. I now understood what Chihaya had meant by mood swings. Was this girl bipolar?

My face flushed, but not because I was embarrassed. I was pissed. "Guess you're right. She does have the astounding maturity level of a thirteen year old."

Mai's blue eyes flicked to Chihaya in hurt before she practically spat flames coming into the kitchen and tearing the evergreen colored apron off of me. "You're fired," she sneered.

I smirked. "I'm free you mean?"

"Mai!" Chihaya grabbed the cloth from her looking just about mad enough to slap her. He didn't though. "You don't have the authority to fire an employee. Stop acting like a child. Perhaps Arika could be a role model for you. If you really intend to impress me, I think you should apologize and attempt to get her to let you be her apprentice. Even after she sticks up for you, you treat her so disrespectfully. It's disgraceful."

"Damn," I cursed as he shoved the apron into my arms. I just wanna' go home and sleep! Drama is overrated and there is way too much of it here. "If I have to stay here until three again can we turn the soap opera off?" Both of them turned to glare at me but I wasn't intimidated. "After today I'm going to resign. Tomorrow I'll apply for work at the clinic or something a little more toned down."

"No, you won't," Chihaya stated. "You work under me. No resigning, no other jobs aside from the farm when you get it. And those are your brother's words by the way."

I grabbed the orange bowl and dumped it into the trashcan. Chihaya's mouth dropped open. I then tossed the apron in there as well and grabbed my bag, Jiji on my shoulder, and out the backdoor I went. No one. Absolutely no one was going to force me to do anything that I didn't want to. I didn't mind baking, but these people were ridiculous. They pushed my buttons, pushed and pushed until the button wore down entirely. I was at the point where the button had pretty much disappeared.

Jiji whistled. "He didn't want you to leave you know," he stated leaning against my neck.

"Oh well," I said in a sing-song voice. A smile spread across my face. I knew Takeru would never say anything to that extent. Jerkface had made it up. My twin knew better than that, and he would never force me to do anything I really didn't want to do. He had suggested I work with Chihaya because he thought I wanted to go back to my old job. The only person making me do it was Chihaya.

* * *

It was late and technically I wasn't supposed to be out of work so I figured, hell why not? I would go visit Kotomi since I had promised to do so and not accomplished it yet. The road there was perilous. I tripped over a stray cat, almost got trampled by some really big guy who was running around drunken in the street, and then—to top it all off—I got to Chiffon Tailoring to find that the door was locked and I had no way of talking to the timid girl and getting her to warm up to me. It was ten by this time so I decided to head back and see my brother for the very first time that day.

Entering Cresson's and Rucola's home for what would hopefully be the last night I trudged dragging my seemingly heavier suitcase up to the room my brother was supposed to be staying in. I set it by his duffle bag and then went back downstairs and into the kitchen to see Rucola washing some dishes. I had no idea where everyone else was.

"Would you like some help?" I asked. She turned seeming surprised to have a visitor. When she saw me she smiled and nodded.

I took the drying dishes from one side of the sink and wiped them off with a towel before finding their places in the cupboards. "Taylor, Anise, and Takeru are outside somewhere. They finished work early today and I guess they wanted to go talk." Rucola explained.

I shrugged and picked up a plate to dry. "Did Takeru seem mad at me at all?" I wondered if he was over the whole _running away_ incident yet.

"He just seemed a little worried is all dear. He's a good brother," she said handing me another dish. "I've never seen my son so inspired. He bonded to your brother like they had been best friends from birth."

I smiled. Good. That's how it was supposed to be. Takeru needed friends like Taylor. I approved fully. Now all that was left was to get him a girlfriend that was halfway decent and to keep that Roomi girl as far away from him as possible. As though he had heard me talking about him their little group came through the door. Taylor was slumped over a very pretty girl's shoulders who I recognized as Anise. Takeru followed closely before. Unless my eyes had deceived me, these guys had been to the bar.

I narrowed my eyes and stared at them as disapprovingly as I'm sure Rucola did. "Just take him to his room Anise," she said tiredly and her daughter complied. She didn't seem to have drunk anything… or at least not enough to have tipped the edge. Although Takeru was putting up a rather flawless façade, I was not fooled. Finishing off the dishes I walked the span of the kitchen, grabbed his arm, and led him to the room we would share for one last night.

"How dare you," I muttered practically ripping the sheets back on the bed and forcing him to sit on it as I tore off the shoes he had neglected to remove at the door. Some would call it controlling, others would probably just think I was overreacting. I was cautious and I despised alcohol. It was fine for others to drink it, but my own twin? I pushed him back forcefully on the bed making him flat out on his back. He never fought me. A sober Takeru would have complained, most likely kicked me for good measure too. I picked up his legs tossing them under the covers and then flipped the cloth over him. The cheesy smile on his face made me sick.

"Ne Arika," he slurred grabbing my hand and pulling me on top of him. I felt my stomach slosh uncomfortably. "You look nice today. Why weren't you at work with your boyfriend?"

"I'm not talking to you like this," I grumbled trying to get him to let go of me. His other arm flew up restraining me.

"I don't want you to be with him because we were always supposed to be together. We don't need other people sis." Takeru pulled me closer hugging me to his quilt covered chest. He reeked of booze. "If you like that cooking bitch I'll kill him in his sleep. Then no one will come between us again."

"You don't know what you're saying Takeru," I told him still struggling to get away.

Still he didn't let go and I fought to get away but his arms wouldn't budge. After a moment I just gave in and lay limp against him. "Please don't leave me. I love you Arika."

I didn't say anything, but I silently thought about what he had said. Why had he said it? I knew that he was worried about me wanting to go home. Those years he'd pent himself up in his room I'd still been there. Now he was scared of us being separated, not only by space but by someone else. "I'm not going anywhere Takeru."


	9. Grinder Surprise

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon nor any of the characters.**_ Also I haven't played Tree of Tranquility so I'm kind of improvising after getting hyped up and reading game summaries so any errors… were kind of planned for. I'm addicted to Harvest Moon games but I can't afford a wii._

"YOSH!!" Jiji pumped a fist into the air and began to zoom around my head as if he were the energizer bunny. It was late in the afternoon and Jiji and I had been sitting by this river for entirely too long. I held the flapping fish on the end of the line tiredly. Behind me sat a large bucket filled to the brim with slimy, smelly fish. We had finally succeeded in reeling in a koi. Now we were two ingredients closer to a rainbow.

"Simply amazing," I heard behind me and turned my head to see Tao standing with a pole in hand as he looked at my bucket of fish. The lanky fisherman knelt down staring into the bucket and scratched his head under his hat. "You've been busy."

"I'm going to put those back. I just needed this one," I replied. He frowned.

"And let all of them go to waste?"

I shrugged. "If it bothers you so much what do you suggest I do?"

He shook his head standing back up. "You've got some money sitting in this bucket. Why don't you ship them?"

I stood and dusted myself off. I was on my last set of unused clothes so after this I would be forced to have a wash day. Luke had promised over the phone this morning to show Takeru and me our new house once they were done. I was thoroughly tempted to check it out ahead of time. My "conscience" had other ideas though so I had been stuck out here all day fishing for an ingredient to the rainbow. When Jiji became my conscience, I have no idea. "You can ship fish?" I was confused. Wouldn't you have to kill them or cook them and put them in a zip-lock baggy or something to that extent first?

The sunhat wearing boy looked up to me golden eyes peering out from the shadow on his brow a smirk dancing on his lips. "Do you need me to show you how to ship things too?" he asked. Immediately I paled.

"No thanks." Just like Gil, Tao could be handsome if he weren't so messed up in the personality department. I mean, yeah some people liked the whole smooth talking, flirt character but it just made me uncomfortable. And Gil, well he was too cold and full of it.

His smile grew and I couldn't get away fast enough. The fisherman grabbed my wrist taking the pale full of fish in his other hand. He didn't have his rod on him which I hadn't noticed until now. Not to say I didn't try to get out of this either, but I wasn't too fond of being drug across the ground so I ended up following him to where ever he was taking me with one of the most impressive scowls I've ever summoned etched across my face. Eventually we stood in front of a wooden bin just outside of the town hall slightly larger than a mail bin you put letters in but built in a similar fashion. Tao opened a little door and set the bucket inside shutting it again. Then he turned to me. I felt like a deer caught in headlights. Nowhere to go.

"You now know how to ship things and you'll get money in the mail for that." He tilted his head to the side and smiled warmly. Was he honestly trying to be helpful other than just flirting senselessly? Then the smile turned back into a face I had feared to begin with. "I heard you quit your job last night."

I blinked. "And?"

"Oh, I was only curious if you needed another. We could use some help at the shop," Tao stated.

Crap. Think up a lie. Think Arika, think! "I was actually thinking of working at the tailoring shop," I spat out wondering if it had been a good idea to say that. I didn't know anything about making clothes.

The person before me raised a pale brow in disbelief and smiled wider. "They aren't hiring." I was caught. "Are you trying to run from me Arika?" he asked then. If I wasn't pasty before I was definitely there now. I shook my head exasperated. "Playing hard to get makes this much more fun." He leaned closer and I contemplated escape possibilities. Why were there guys like this in the world?

"Arika!" Someone yelled and Tao released me taking a step back as Luke popped out of who-knows-where with the biggest grin on his face. "Hey you ready to see your house?"

How relieving. Luke to the rescue. I grinned back at the oblivious hero. "Yeah, where's Takeru?"

"He's with Poen. They headed up when I left to find you." The towering boy scratched his head looking apologetic. "Your brother isn't much bigger than you huh?"

I laughed. "Not really. So… are we going?" I wasn't trying to be rude, but I wanted to put a good bit of distance between Tao and I. He was a little too persistent.

"Oh, yeah," Luke mumbled his grin suddenly reappearing full force. With that he and I walked down the steps to the road below soon back through town to the other side and along another path. Luke had been unusually quiet along the way but when I looked over at him I caught his honey eyes and he looked ahead again trying to play it off.

"What?" I asked feeling uncomfortable but not as much as when I'd been with Tao.

"Did I interrupt something earlier?" Luke questioned quietly as though he were embarrassed to ask.

I nodded and his face flushed before I added in a small, "Thanks for that."

The carpenter looked dumbfounded. "Huh?" he blurted stupidly. I shook my head smiling. Leave it to a guy to have that kind of reaction and then a guy like Luke to be so blatantly clueless.

"I told you before he and I had met already. I just feel really weird around him and not in a good way. He freaks me out a little," I told him. His frowned seeming to be in thought before smiling again as I started to hear crashing water. "What's that?"

"Those are the falls," he replied. "It was a really good location. There's good fishing so you can save up for crops and things like that. When you get a little bit of gold we can build you a pump so you can irrigate water from the stream and have a garden or water your animals if you want to have animals. I'll get my dad to cut the price down a little since it's pretty expensive." Aw, that's so sweet. I couldn't help it when I went out of my way to throw my arms around the boy's neck. I felt him warm under me and pulled back not wanting him to feel oddly.

"Thanks," I beamed and then ran ahead already pumped to see what kind of house they had built for us. It could have been made of cardboard and I wouldn't have cared by this point just having a house would be wonderful. Plus, I had to remind myself, we hadn't paid anything for this house. It was free because of how we had won the drawing for the "exciting ranch plan" blah, blah, blah…

It wasn't a mansion, but it was good enough. It wasn't painted, actually it looked like a storage shack more than a house and I could feel the nervousness wafting off of Luke as though it were a disease. I looked the house over for a minute before walking up through the open door Luke following behind quietly. My brother and a blonde boy I had yet to meet but guessed was Poen, stood with their backs to us talking about later remodels and such whilst I went and had a seat on the single bed of the room. It was a twin, not that it would be a problem. Luke still stood in the doorway looking tense as though he expected me to yell at him.

"I like it," I stated. His mouth dropped open and my brother and the other boy finally took notice of us.

"What—Y-you do?" Luke stuttered seeming rather taken aback. Then his expression changed. "Well, I guess I did do a pretty good job."

The blonde one with a headband rolled his eyes. "Shut up Luke. This thing is probably one of the worst jobs we've ever done. Sorry about that, but the mayor didn't give us enough money to buy good materials. It should be sound until we can do some remodeling."

I shook my head. "It's fine really. I can deal with this."

"We'll remodel soon," Takeru mumbled seeming a little put off by the lower quality of our new home. That or he could still have that hangover. Serves him right.

"So then will you come visit again soon?" Luke asked hopefully as Poen started to usher him out the door.

"Actually," I started thoughtfully. "I'll stop by tomorrow morning. I want to talk to your dad about something." I waved as the smaller blonde boy shoved big Luke out the door and shut it behind them. Then I turned to look at Takeru whose face was not bright as it tended to be since we moved here. He looked rather pale actually. I frowned and approached him placing my hand on his forehead. He wasn't sick. "What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry about last night," he muttered looking down at me. "I don't know what I was thinking. I shouldn't have drank anything. I'm sure I did something stupid last night and what's worse is that I can't remember anything."

I couldn't very well reassure him. Telling him "no, I'm sure you were your normal self" would not only be a lie, but very much against my character. I felt bad to let him wallow just because him wallowing because he was mad at himself was a very un-Takeru like thing to do. Most likely I would get annoyed by it later and snap at him. I really didn't want to do that so I just back up from him and went back outside. I had noticed our miniscule bathroom in passing. It had a tiny shower, no sink, and a toilet. I guess it would have to do for now.

There was a shipping bin just outside of here as well. I guessed that we would need one since those things seemed to be the only way to make money. Actually, now that I thought about it Rucola and Cresson had one of these in their barn and that nasty chicken coop. Funny thing was that I never actually met their daughter sort of like how I didn't really meet that Poen guy earlier. They just passed me up like I wasn't even there at all… hm.

"Ne Arika," Jiji stated tugging on my hair to get my attention as he normally did. I turned my head slightly nodding. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing really," I stated. "Let's go to the church. I haven't seen it yet."

* * *

_(The church in my hometown is like this actually. They really do have one of the very few real Baroque era organs. Also it's one of the only ones in our state. So basically… I guess I'm sort of describing my church. It's really pretty and I guess it could be creepy at night if you were superstitious because it's like a small version of one of the European cathedrals. Remember I haven't played the game. I'm making up a lot of this stuff… no idea what the actual church on ToT looks like.)_

I wasn't really much of the personality to be dark and depressing but upon entering the church I felt like I was in a true baroque setting. The cathedral wasn't exceptionally well lit and everything was bathed in maroon and navy with the sun setting outside. An enormous organ rose out of the front and its decorative pipes extended in frames like gigantic wings. The whole place was evolving into a world completely separate from the one outside. It was gothic and beautiful because it was such a contrast to what else I had seen on this island where everyone seemed to be dull, happy, and very boring.

Ironically, I didn't find this place ominous. In fact I was intrigued. Jiji on the other hand, sat on my shoulder and released a shudder. "Can we leave now?" he grumbled.

"It's pretty, why don't we stay?" I stated walking further inward and approaching the organ at the front in curiosity. There was a small standing piano off to the side, but I wasn't interested in it quite yet. My entire focus was that enormous immovable instrument that took up an entire wall of the spacious room. Bypassing the pulpit I finally reached my destination and walked around to the seat of the organ. I wondered how this thing worked. Did you have to do something special?

"What are you doing?" I heard someone growl and turned to the direction it had come from. There stood the mayor's son in all his haughtiness. "You shouldn't meddle with things you know nothing about. This is an irreplaceable part of our city and you were probably about to attempt to play it weren't you?"

I didn't answer even though he had just pegged me dead on.

"If you press the keys or peddles when the pump isn't running in the basement then you will ruin it." And of course the kid couldn't say this in a nice way. He had to be obnoxiously rude about it.

"Then go down and work the pump," I deadpanned staring right back at him completely unfazed.

His crystalline eyes narrowed. "Move."

I shrugged and slid out of the seat which he was in seconds after. He pulled a lever that was just beneath the layers of keys and waited a moment before he spread his hands elegantly over those same age blackened keys and went to work. Perhaps I was too in awe to notice that my mouth had fallen slightly open. My hands gripped the frame of the box that he sat in as he played while I watched him finally feeling that the setting of this cathedral of another world was complete though wondering how he managed to just randomly pop up as he had.

The song he played was exquisite. I had never heard an organ, nor witnessed an organ grinder. To find out that the boy I had disliked from the moment I first saw him was musically inclined made my thoughts of him turn. I was a pianist. I knew how hard it was to take control of things and portray them correctly or even to where they were comprehendible. I also knew he was using three voices instead of just two like a pianist would. He had to use his feet as well. I was a person that liked being challenged, that was why I had wanted to try to play this instrument. Now I was seeing how magnificent and almost impossible it would be. Sir Arrogance had probably been doing this since he was very young.

Once he was finished I still stood completely dumbstruck. Why was it that the guy I liked the least was the one who had the main characteristic I sought after? I loved musicians. Why was Gil good at anything? Dammit. This was very frustrating.

"Stop gawking," he said jarring me from my thoughts. "It's late you have work tomorrow do you not? I suggest you go home and to bed."

Then the stupidest words came out of my mouth. "Will you teach me?" Jiji practically fell off of my shoulder laughing. Gil seemed as though he I had just slapped him. He looked annoyed enough. Shaking his head he slipped out of the seat and I watched him my ego now forcing me to face him even though I really wished I could take the statement back.

"Why would I do something so ridiculous?" snooty-pants-son-of-a-bitch asked before strutting in the general direction of the door. I hung my head and sulked over to the piano. I didn't take rejection well. I had really wanted to learn too. Oh well, good riddance. I'd seen enough of that blonde kid for one day. So I played whatever came to mind which happened to be something rather depressing and reflective of my sudden mood change. Jiji had stopped laughing and come to sit where sheet music should be held though there wasn't any. I doubted this place had anything decent anyway. No use looking for sheet notes.

"Arika," I heard and my head shot upwards so fast that a pain went straight down my spine. I turned around clutching the back of my neck to see Gil with his hand on the door not quite having been able to push it open yet. The heat rushed to my face so fast it made my head spin. I had thought he was gone already. He'd sure taken his time. "Meet me here again tomorrow. At nine."

Then he left. What were the odds of that? Had he really just said he would take me on? I blinked still staring at the door. "What?"


	10. Closets are for Brothers

**Author's Note:** _I was looking at something today and realized that my church description is sort of like Waku Waku Animal March instead of Tree of Tranquility. Kind of ironic… Oh well. And is Poen the blonde boy with the white bandana? I was hoping I described him instead of Perry of Oz… which would be awkward if I did. ARG!! This would be so much easier if I actually had the game and a wii! Oh well. I only know for sure what the marriage candidates look like so I can better describe them and their family that resembles them—or at least that I would imagine resembled them. Apologies for screw ups anyway. Also I am totally undecided on who Arika will end up dating… not that it's the main focus although I'm open to suggestions. Also I'm sure some of you noticed the rating changed to M. I'm kind of thinking I went a little overboard on the foul language and seeing as Tao is turning out the way he is AND that Arika (Akari) and Takeru are as close as they are… it kind of has some adult themes. Sorry about that._

Today was laundry day/find a job day/feel like absolute crap day. I begrudgingly scrubbed at the washboard I had been given by Roomi and Kotomi. Why did a normal washing machine have to be so outrageously out of my price range? Takeru seemed to be having a perfectly fine day… much to my dismay. He should be miserable with me, but no. Of course my dearest brother was waltzing about our plot of land, a spring in his step, whistling away as he carried a hoe over his shoulder after having tilled enough soil to plant in. Cresson had apparently given him seeds for some random crop. I growled and scrubbed harder sloshing the soap up onto my face by accident.

"I hate you," I said to no one in particular really being that the bubbles weren't really alive. Jiji was gone for the day. Apparently I was in such a foul mood I had even scared my mini-me off. He had left this morning commenting that he hadn't seen Spic or Ton in a while and needed to visit them. I guessed that the two people he'd named were the white and grey sprites.

I had vowed to myself to take a break around five or so and head up to the clinic to see if I could get a job there… and if that didn't work then I would keep searching until I didn't have to accept the offer of working at the fishing place. Not that I wouldn't enjoy fishing. It was relaxing and had turned out to be much easier than I had thought, but I didn't want to deal with Tao. I would have to do other things in my spare time like help Takeru with our to-be-garden after today and I wasn't exactly looking forward to it, but there wasn't much that could be done. If I could have done anything I was actually good at maybe then I would have been a little more optimistic. Looking back on my previous experiences with farming this would probably not end very pretty. I could easily picture myself swinging that hoe right into my own shin by mistake.

"Do you want some help?" Takeru was standing above me running a grimy hand through his hair. Just how was he so talented at this hick life thing? He had it down to a science. I shook my head at the very thought of his disgusting hands mixing into my fairly clean soap water and getting on my clothes.

"You should rest a bit. Besides, I'm almost done. This is my last one." I mumbled only because that was all I could manage to do at the time. Oh, if only he knew how jealous of him I was at the moment. He was so perfectly suited to be where he was now.

"Then I guess I'll go over to visit Taylor and maybe stop by the inn. Good luck with getting a job," he said cheerily. I cringed. Takeru had stayed on working part time at the Souffle Farm. Of course he would. He'd liked the job and he and Taylor really did get along well enough. I was just stuck being unhappy and scared to say anything. I didn't want Takeru to think I wanted to go home. The incident the night before last hadn't been exclusively his fault. What drives a person to turn to drinking? They are upset about something or want to have a good time, or both. Takeru was apprehensive I would leave before that night and that was what had brought him to give in and drink with Taylor. I was sure of it. I hadn't been conceived at the same time as him for no reason. I knew my brother. So I would suffer in silence until I had convinced myself that I actually kind of liked this place. I'd get a job as reassurance of my permanence and maybe a boyfriend or something. On second thought, scratch that last part. I would die an old widow in denial.

And then I was done. I celebrated inwardly, then externally by giving the wooden bucket of suds-water a swift kick which sent it back a couple feet and toppled over onto its side letting the contents flow out into the grass. I would have to find out how much a washing machine was and put it on my "To Do" list. That entails making a list first which required paper of which I had none. Sighing I just made a mental note to swing by the general store and talk to them about it. Maybe that Phoebe girl would cut me a discount if she wasn't too disturbed by the last time I had seen her.

Well, here goes nothing. I would go in search of employment. Chiffon Tailoring was out of the question since Tao had pointed out that they weren't hiring anyway. The road I was on right now lead up by the Kirsh in and then down a little further and I would be at the clinic which was my first stop. When I entered the little bell on the door jingled and the older woman, In'ya, looked up from a book she was reading behind the counter. She then placed a silver string through the middle of the book, snapped it shut, and proceeded to stare at me.

"Miss Yumei," she began. "is something wrong?"

I shook my head and approached the desk trying not to look as annoyed as I had been all day long. "I was wondering if you would like some part time help around the office. I can do anything you need."

The older woman was silent in thought for a moment before she nodded and pulled out a slip of paper from a drawer in the counter. "Fill out this form and I'll discuss your application with the doctor while you do that. If you meet his expectations I don't see any reason we shouldn't hire you on." Then she smiled. "We do need an extra set of hands. It would be greatly appreciated."

Well that just made it sound like me getting hired would be a sure thing. This was a lot easier than I had thought it would be. I guess all that was left was to see if Wo—er the doctor liked the idea of having me around to help. I doubted I could get away with calling him by his name in a work setting being that if this turned out he would be my boss. I nodded to the woman as she went turned to exit the counter and go through a door to a room in the back. And then it was to writing. I filled out the application to the best of my ability. Name, date of birth, address, cell phone number, ground phone—didn't have one of those, family, blah, blah, blah…

"Miss Yumei," I heard and pulled my head up to see that the dark headed man had entered the lobby and stood about a foot away from me.

"Sir?" I asked setting the pen down so I wouldn't mess up the application with an accidental stray mark.

"What kind of qualifications do you think you have for this job?" Ah, so he was just going to shoot off questions like a real employer. This took me back for sure. My old boss back at the bakery had done the same thing.

"I'm an organized person, I have decent people skills so if you need me to wait on customers here at the counter I could do that. I've worked behind a counter before. I am fairly confident I can do whatever you ask of me, and I'm a fast learner." I answered. His dark eyes flicked to the paper I had under my hand on the counter.

"May I see that?"

I handed it to him. The immensely unemotional nature of this man was almost unnerving. I had noticed it before, but now he seemed so professional I could never doubt he was a strict and hard worker. Most likely he was the type to stay up late at night working non-stop in attempt to help his patients. He was a good doctor, I could tell from just that.

"I suppose I should show you the ranks then," he muttered skimming over the paper in one fail swoop. I waited patiently and then followed as he turned and walked into the room he had come from. "This is my office and the basic room that immediate attention patients or walk-ins are shown to. If we have a customer who is not in need over over-night care they will be shown here. Those stairs there lead to our stay rooms. Patients in need of being kept overnight for any reason will be taken there. Through that door there is a small kitchen for lunch breaks or for making food for patients. The medicine is stored in a back room we stock it in the cupboards you noticed behind the counter." I nodded as he looked at me. "That is the basic breakdown. Your first job will be to sanitize and then set to organizing some files for me." Yet again I nodded and looked around until I spotted a sink similar to one we had used in our labs in high school. I cleaned my hands, dried them, and then set to work on going through a set of shelves that Won pointed to from his desk without looking up. This really wouldn't be too bad. How lucky was I?

It was simple enough. Put the information on patients in numerical order by birth date then sort the folders which contain specific cases into a reversed Romanized alphabetical order. Then I was to get color coded stickers to put on all the folders which had completed cases. The unsolved ones—which were very few—I was to leave untouched and without a sticker. Once I was done I set all the folders up on the shelf again in an orderly manner. I was very tempted to say "what now?" but I knew it would be rude.

"Doctor," I stated to get his attention from scribbling on some forms while he seemed completely absorbed in a small vile of crimson liquid. I knew it very well to be a blood sample. He looked up after writing a couple more words and looked to the shelf. Then he reached up to push back his glasses.

"I'm glad to know you are capable of executing jobs ahead of schedule. Perhaps In'ya would have some work for you. We still have a couple of hours before closing," he mused.

"Sir," I bowed and walked to the front desk to visit the older woman.

In'ya sent me to the kitchen with specific instructions on how to brew green herbal tea. She had left off muttering about how "that boy can't seem to keep himself nourished enough yet he's a doctor…" And only the man's grandmother could call him a boy and it not seem confusing because it was fairly obvious he was on a higher maturity frequency than anyone I had ever met. Such discipline…

I brought the steaming mug out carefully but stopped in the doorway to find that if I approached my new boss now I would be interrupting something. The girl whose room I had stayed in on the Souffle Farm was speaking with the doctor about something. I could tell that she couldn't possibly have been in for matters other than something on a personal level because he wasn't examining her and she was slightly pink in the cheeks. I back slowly back into the kitchen I had just exited and closed the door as quietly as possible not wanting to be noticed and be the one who broke their conversation.

I set the tea down on the counter and then proceeded to slide down the wall hugging my knees to my chest as I waited for their conversation to take a turn to where I could deliver it, or for Anise to leave, whichever came first. Actually now that I thought about it their relationship was pretty cute and were Won not my boss or well… were he not Won, I would probably pick on him about it. Some people though, were not the type to picked on. I shuddered at the though. Won and Anise also got me to thinking about Takeru. I wondered silently if he would find himself a good girlfriend. Maybe Kotomi… nah. She was not his type at all. Mai kind of was, but then she wasn't too. Anise I didn't know well enough to say, but I could already scratch her off being that she obviously had eyes for someone else. I wasn't going to allow Kotomi's sister near him. That left… "Phoebe or that Kathy girl," I sighed to myself. "No way is he dating a girl from the bar and Phoebe probably hates me so why would she go near my brother?"

"What on earth are you babbling about?" I heard and looked up to see Won looking down at me.

"Oh sorry!" I muttered standing up quickly but having to hold my head after doing so since I got a small case of vertigo. "I was getting you tea, but then you were occupied and I didn't want to interrupt."

He looked confused. "Interrupted what?" he asked. I blinked. Did he just say that to be polite instead of saying "get your ass out there next time"?

"Well, I saw Anise and I—"

He cut me off by holding up a hand to silence me. "She's a very sweet girl, but she was only bringing me some herbs. I don't really condole illegally growing medication in one's own backyard but she can't be stopped. It would be improper for me to have a relationship with a client."

But she had been blushing, her face lit up like there was something there. Was it one sided? Was he denying it because it was taboo? How was that taboo anyway? "Then you plan to die old and lonely?" I asked but soon covered my mouth realizing my mistake. "I'm sorry." I whispered staring at the floor. How rude of me. Were it any other guy I wouldn't have cared, but this was my employer.

"I'm assuming you're a romantic then," he stated reaching around me for his tea and taking a sip of it.

"Not really," I admitted. "I'm just worried about Takeru. He needs someone. Well someone other than me to be attached to. He's never had a girlfriend and I don't want him to be so dependent on me. I want to go back to the city one day and if he only accepts me then how can I do that without tearing him in half? Heh," I chuckled. "You're a doctor not a psychiatrist. Why am I rambling off to you? I'll get back to work now. Sorry sir." He nodded as if to say it was okay and followed me out into the other room again.

"Ma'am, what else?" I asked upon seeing In'ya.

"Actually that is about all I can think of for today. All the other jobs take too much time to complete and we have five minutes until we close," she said. Then she put a hand on my shoulder. "You haven't met Perry yet have you?"

"No ma'am." Who was Perry?

"PERRY!" the woman screeched making me wince. Who knew that someone like her could release such a horrible noise. A young man came quickly down the stairs with widened eyes and a frightened face. He was actually vaguely cute for a kid. My guess he was my age or a little younger.

"Yes In'ya?" he questioned coming to her side and standing stock straight. How cute. He was definitely well trained. Who knows how long he'd been working for them. His eyes strayed to me curiously seeing as the woman's hand still took up residence on my shoulder.

"This is Yumei Arika. She'll be working here with us for a while and I thought it best that she become acquainted with everyone."

A polite smile immediately appeared on the boy's face and he put out his hand for me to shake. "It's very nice to meet you," he stated. I studied him for a moment. He could have been more attractive were it not for that bowl haircut. Poor thing.

"You too," I said curtly issuing a small smile in attempt to hide my disgust at his hair. Well at least it was clean and not washed with a bar of soap like Luke's. That carpenter was a fashion nightmare. Who wore flame prints in their twenties? I mean, seriously. I had thought that was a theme for elementary school children.

"So, that's all then?" I asked stretching my back a little and hearing a satisfying crack I smiled and stood straight again.

I felt a hand on my shoulder then and turned my head to see the hand was connected to Won. "Apparently not," he stated motioning for me to follow him. I looked at In'ya with questioning eyes she shook her head and left me to go to the counter perhaps to get ready for closing. I was drawn away by force now as someone had my arm. It wasn't Won, but Perry who had shoved me onto the examination table while Won went about scribbling something down on a clip board. My eyes widened.

"Um, I didn't plan an appointment—" but I was cut off.

"I didn't either, but this one is free of charge. Don't worry. I don't want an employee working with a back problem like that. It could inhibit you if we don't do something about it now." Won set the clipboard aside and approached me his hands falling on my shoulders. My eyes widened. I didn't realize I had a back problem. I had always had back pains but they went away when I would pop it. "I'll need you to relax and lay down on your stomach," he instructed.

I did as I was told and tried to relax, but this sounded like something painful. Was I really ready for this? Before I could even think about it warm hands were under my shirt and in one fluid motion they pressed down on two points. There was a loud snap and his hands were gone leaving the skin he'd touched tingling. I just lay there in shock for a moment. What was that?

"Arika," Won stated. "Are you alright?" I nodded. "Okay then, try to stand up for me and I'll make sure I did everything properly."

I pushed myself into a sitting position and then slipped onto the floor. Once the soles of my shoes touched the tile I felt like a weight had been lifted. A wide grin spread over my face. Wow. "To think someone is actually that good with their hands." My grin faded when I realized what I had said and I turned my gaze to the floor hoping that he hadn't taken that the way I just had, very aware that a blush was extending over my face. It wasn't like me to act this way. Come to think of it, I'd never experienced someone's touch that was quite that exhilarating either. I could still feel the impressions of his fingers and where they had trailed on my back.

"I studied chiropractic practices as well in medical school. It shouldn't be so surprising," he stated impassively. I was grateful that he'd either ignored the double meaning or brushed it off. But he really had improved my condition and I hadn't even known something was wrong with me.

"T-thank you sir," I muttered recovering all too slowly from the heat in my cheeks. Why was I still blushing? He wasn't that important to be this embarrassed over what I'd said. If I could have kicked myself I would have. I was being stupid and very like a pre-teen girl. I really had hoped I would never have this phase…

Won nodded and I hurried out of the room to the lobby and then out the door knowing full well I looked obviously embarrassed. I sighed defeated and threw my head back staring up at the now twinkling and dark sky as a few clouds cut between the conversation my eyes were trying to have with the stars. The air out here was much easier to take in than that in the clinic. I walked along with a frown cursing myself for acting so immaturely, but it wasn't my fault. I knew exactly what had come over me so I couldn't use that excuse. Hormones were the devil.

Strangely I found myself pitying Tao. He had hormone issues as well, but then I remembered he could use a bit more self-control but _chose_ not to. I shook my head wishing that it wouldn't be awkward when I came in for work tomorrow.

"Aaach!" I exclaimed feverishly messing my hair in frustration.

"Arika?"

I opened my eyes and looked up to see Takeru stepping out of the inn's bar with a few people in trailing after him. One of them was Taylor, the other was a very burly man I had never seen before. My face flushed when I realized what my hair must look like. It was probably sticking up much worse than normal. I never used to have problems with cowlicks until I cut it. Now I really was just like my brother. I withdrew my hand quickly and let it fall to my side smiling nervously. Well, it was nice to know that now two people in town thought I was insane. What a wonderful first impression I must make.

"Did you have any luck?" Takeru asked with hopeful eyes as he approached me and took hold of my shoulders wheeling me over to their little group.

I nodded attempting to look indifferent by staring at random things as though they were interesting. Anything but to look anyone in the face. This was humiliating… plus I was still rather unsure of myself at the moment making me even more uncomfortable than I would normally be.

"Well aren't you cute!" The still unnamed man's voice boomed as he set a large hand on top of my head. "It's too bad that your brother isn't a girl too! That'd be some interesting stuff!" He winked at me before taking another swig of the bottle in his other hand. My eyes widened and Taylor laughed nervously off to the side as Takeru knocked the guy's arm away from me.

"I think you've had enough for one night Owen," Taylor stated before skillfully swiping the alcohol out of his grip. Said "Owen" looked stunned as he couldn't figure out where the bottle had run off to.

"I'm not finished yet," the large man wined like a five year old. "I swear to drunk I'm not god, just give me the damn bottle back!"

Oh how cliché… I took a carefully measured step back and eyed Owen with sudden anxiousness. Situations like this made me rather uncomfortable. The man's ears were starting to grow red and hostile drunkards are not my basket of daisies. I clutched Takeru's arm instinctively when the door to the inn reopened and a pretty woman with long blonde hair came out brandishing a rather intimidating expression. Her hand latched onto Owen's earlobe pulling him back inside the inn while she muttered a sling of profanities. I only caught a little of what she was saying though. Things along the lines of "damn idiot, always rilin' up the customers… I knew I shoulda' kicked ya' out sooner."

Both the men outside with me released a breath in relief. "Well," Takeru started. "You got hired! That's great! Where are you working now?"

I jumped at my brother's sudden enthusiasm. He'd probably had a few drinks himself although it wasn't as bad as that first night. So much for remorse. "I'm working at the Meringue Clinic from one until ten Monday through Friday." A grin spread over my twin's face as he linked arms with me and drug me into the inn so fast I had no way to retaliate.

"Cathy!" he called to the blonde woman. Not many of the occupants paid us all that much attention as we entered. They were all conversing and laughing amongst one another though I did see a dark haired carpenter do a double-take as he caught sight of me. Yeah, it wasn't exactly my _thing_ to be in a bar… as that was what this part of the inn was this time of night.

"What can I do ya' for handsome?" the woman smiled after delivering some cocktails to a couple of woman at a corner table. "You want another round?"

My brother shook his head chuckling. "What the best non-alcoholic beverage you serve? We're celebrating."

Cathy's hazel eyes strayed to me and she smiled. "I'll go tell the chef to pull a masterpiece then." With that she disappeared behind a door in the back and Takeru led me over to an empty table taking a seat beside me. Taylor followed silently smiling as he sat next to my brother.

I was not comfortable at all. The atmosphere was smoky and stunk, people were being obnoxious all around us, and was it just me or was I getting a lot of sideways glances. It was as if they knew I was uncomfortable and they were trying to torture me.

"What are you doing here?" a sudden voice beside me stated curiously and I spun my head to see a flame print bandana. It was just Luke.

"Ask him," I muttered sinking lower into my chair after motioning toward Takeru. Luke grinned before slinging his arm around my shoulders and turning to my brother. I tensed almost seething at how the situation was turning out.

"She's gotten hired at the clinic," Takeru stated almost too cheerfully. I didn't even look at him feeling betrayed. He knew how much I hated social events of this manner. I had attended parties before, but business parties. Our father owned a law firm back in the city so you can imagine that this was a definite step down, crude, and far too much on a personal level. I still was completely unaware of where my brother had gotten the farming gene from. Perhaps it had been some sort of mutation. Yes, it had to be a mutation.

"Awesome!" Luke cheered taking a large bite of the mayonnaise slathered piece of toast I had just realized he had. His arm around my shoulders tightened encouragingly. Just then there was a dull plunk as a thick leaded glass was almost slammed onto our table. The server, I should have guessed, was an irritated looking strawberry-blonde jerk. After a good glare in my general direction he retreated to the back. I stared at my drink feeling an odd foreboding. I wouldn't put it past the guy to have spat in it.

"Geeze, what crawled up his ass and died?" Taylor muttered.

Takeru seemed to have sobered up at bit and still sat with a narrowed glance staring at the door Chihaya had disappeared behind. "If he gives you any problems, tell me." His eyes flicked to me and I nodded vaguely before hesitantly taking a test sip of my drink. I could have melted then and there, though I would never admit it. Was everything Jerk-face made this good? The three men at my table stared at me as I inhaled the rest of it as though I'd grown a third eye.

They were silent for a moment before Luke flung my hand into air like a referee does to the winner in a boxing match. "And it's down!" he announced grinning from ear to ear.

* * *

That night I struggled to actually fall asleep at all. For one Takeru was treating me like a stuffed animal by manhandling me in his deep state of unconsciousness and I had gotten a little worried about Jiji. He hadn't come back yet. I wiggled onto my side facing the window next to our only bed. My eyes strained looking out into the night for any sign of the little guy. I heard a sigh behind me and wondered if I had accidently woken my brother up.

His arms around me tightened as he scooted closer pulling me back into the uncomfortable sweaty heat of being in too much contact with him. Our home didn't have air-conditioning installed yet so sharing a bed was actually worse than I had imagined it would be. God, I was going to die.

"What's wrong?" Takeru whispered confirming my thoughts. Why the hell was he snuggling with me if he was awake? I frowned but didn't move seeing as I was kind of out of options being trapped between him and the wall.

"It's hot," I stated bluntly. My brother tossed the rumpled covers off and replaced his arm around my waist.

"Better?"

No, not really. I just sighed and pressed my forehead against the glass. It wasn't cold like I'd hoped. Damn. "Takeru, do you like any of the girls you've met here?"

"Sure," he mumbled settling his head against my back. "They're all really nice I guess."

"No, do you like them as in potential date interest," I explained my mood turning sourer by the moment. Why does this room have to be so damned hot?

He took his time thinking up an answer. "I don't really think so. Not so far anyway. I don't know that I'm all that into any girls…" I gave up and turned around to face him. He stared at me questioningly but smiling slightly. What had he been in such a good mood about all the friggin' day long? This was driving me insane!

"Are you jealous or something?" he inquired lacing our fingers. "You'll always be my twin. You know that."

I growled. "No, I want you to get a girlfriend. It'll be good for you," I snapped. "What's with you today? You're too happy."

His smile faltered. "I'm just in a good mood about the house I guess." Oh that liar. He didn't like the house. It was too small, too dingy. I knew my brother and I knew that wasn't the case.

"Are you sure you aren't interested in some girl?" I asked suspiciously. This time I could see him. I wish I could have watched his face when he'd answered before.

He smirked. "Interested in you." He waggled his eyebrows and I rolled my eyes. Not like I didn't see that one coming. He was avoiding the question. He was interested in someone, but why wouldn't he tell me who?

"Fine," I stated pulling away from him so I could sit up. "I'm going to get some oxygen, if you change your mind and decide to tell me then you can find me outside."

He caught my arm and pulled me forcefully back to the bed before I was two steps from it. He hugged me tightly and settled his mouth by my ear. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I don't want you to get mad at me… but I-I'm not sure you would understand sis."

I turned my head taking a deep breath before asking him what I hoped was not the case. "It's not… me is it?" That would of course be worst case scenario. I wouldn't exactly revel with the idea, but I could deal with it. It wasn't entirely impossible.

"I wish it were that simple."

Then what? A married woman? That wasn't possibly worse than incest. Wait…

My eyes widened and I turned around fully to look my brother in the face. How… he'd never shown_ that_ kind of interest before. Suddenly I let out the breath I'd been holding in relief and smiled. Was that all it was? Thank goodness. I flung my arms around him tightly, but I could feel him tense. He was confused.

"You could have told me sooner! I shouldn't have to pry something like that out of you!" I wailed. Only then did I realize that I had started crying.

"I knew I shouldn't have told you!" Takeru said pushing me off of him angrily.

"No! I'm not upset!" I stated wiping frustratedly at the tears. "I understand Takeru. It's okay, I don't care. I'm just happy you like someone."

He studied me a moment before accepting what I had said and drawing me back to him. "What should I do?" he asked pitifully.

I smiled and stroked his hair. "Whatever makes you happy." My curiosity was almost bursting so I couldn't help but ask, "Who?"

Takeru tightened his arms around me keeping silent for a good thirty seconds before his answer came, and even though I thought I couldn't be more happy for him, I was when he spoke that one word. "Taylor." And suddenly I remembered something I had forgotten. I'd missed meeting Gil at the church.

"Shit." Even though I hadn't implied that his choice of attraction was bad he didn't know that. My twin looked hurt. Takeru's fists clenched.

"You suck."


End file.
